Iirc (edit - apparently incorrect) Halo was the first to use left joystick as forward/backward and left/right strafe; and right joystick as look up/down and pivot left/right.
I even recall articles counting it as a point against the game due to its ‘awkward controls’ …but apparently after a tiny learning curve, the entire community/industry got on board.
Blind Guardian is pretty hit-and-miss: their shit lands somewhere on a spectrum of metal to renaissance-faire lol. Sacred Worlds is another one of my favorites.
All of Metallica’s S&M album is solid fucking gold, but the best (imo) song from it almost never gets the spotlight, so it’s tragically easy to miss: No Leaf Clover
Avenged Sevenfold isn’t symphonic metal, but they’ve got two songs that at least dip their toes in that water: The Stage, and Little Piece of Heaven.
Epica
If you know Epica you’re probably already familiar with Nightwish, but in case your not… well, Nightwish. Most of their music is more similar to Omega than the one I’m about to link, but this specific song is just so fucking weird, I love it: Scaretale. Definitely check out their other songs too!
Essence of Datum / Naxayras
You’d probably like Pelican - kind of ambient rock. Or Russian Circles, which is similar but more mellow.
Mohamed Shawky
Not familiar, and the only Mohamed Shawky’s I’m seeing on YouTube are a physicist and an athlete. Judging entirely by the name, I’m guessing it’s got some Arabic vibes, and the best I’ve got there is the first one I linked, Wheel of Time, mostly because of the intro… Antti Martikainen has some Arabic sounding songs - that dude’s music is ALL over the place… I recall one being a kind of Arabic metal that I could have SWORN was called “Ancient Worlds” but searching that isn’t coming up with anything. He does have Arabic hybrid sci-fi music lol. Skim that dude’s channel, and brace for a musical roller coaster.
Rivers of Nihil
Hmm, maybe try Lorna Shore, especially Pain Remains. Lorna Shore is WAY too throaty-howler-monkey-shit for me personally, but fortunately they’ve got instrumental versions too.
try using the console to set the speed to like 0.5 or even slower. When things speed up, the game physics goes nuts; slowing them down stabilizes them again.
Witcher 2’s controls are a bit janky, but it’s a solid game in and of itself for the story alone; if you can stomach some pretty bad mechanics to enjoy an otherwise decent product, I’d say start at #2.
Witcher 1 is… so bad it’s kinda comical. I’d just pull up a story summary of Witcher 1 on youtube and call it a day. If you’re a masochist, go ahead and give the actual game a whirl; but I’d recommend modding the snot out of it to at least make your character OP as fuck, allowing you to mostly skip the god-awful combat. But even then, the only selling point is the story, which again you can just pull up on YouTube.
That said, you can dive into 3 with zero knowledge of the previous two and be just fine. There are things that will go over your head, but nothing significant.
Once you get a hold on dodging/parrying/etc, you’ll feel like a damn ninja, especially on harder difficulties; but leading up to that, yeah combat is… OK. Also don’t miss out of experimenting with different builds - one of my favorites optimized using bombs, which later into it makes you a walking B-52 - fun build if you enjoy clearing trash via a wave of pure chaos, then mopping up the stronger guys by way of the sword.
And yeah, the whole package is what counts here: Witcher 3 is a fantastic all around game. It isn’t without it’s imperfections, but they are barely noticeable amidst the tsunami of ridiculously high quality you’ll be hit with from all the other features.
Hybrid tower defense and 3rd person shooter/slasher. This game is… fucking stupid! Like by design - your character is a moron, and says some of the dumbest shit you’ll hear come out of a protagonist’s mouth. So with this game, you get a high dose of face-palmy humor paired with orc arms/heads/bones/etc flying across your screen after they get blended up by all your traps. Gameplay is surprisingly solid; you’ll get some time to think and plan where to place traps and obstacles; then you’ll get hit with a wave of orcs and other fantasy critters and try to manually pick off any that make it through the traps. There are a couple more games in this series - imo #1 is the best, but if you like this one, keep the others on your radar too.
You’re a viking that died and you find yourself in a purgatory called “Valheim” to prove you’re worthy of Valhalla. Another survival builder - with a somehow charming combination of really bad graphics paired with really good lighting. The combat is kinda clunky, but the other elements of this game make up for it. Well worth $10!! Don’t forget to turn your music on before summoning a boss.
Sci-fi survival builder: you’re on a massive spacecraft that ends up crash landing on an ocean planet; your goal is to figure out wtf happened and find a way off the planet. This game is 80% feel-good tropical diving simulator; and 20% thalasaphobic deepsea horror. This has become one of my go-to “idk what to play” games that I keep returning to for a nice digital tropical vacation… with a dash of fleeing in terror from, uh… spoilers. No really though, if you don’t already know this game’s story, DO NOT start looking up videos and posts etc about it - just buy it and dive in.
Sci-fi, you’re dropped down to a lush alien planet to do what humans do best: strip all of its natural resources! Combat is limited, but boils down to fighting off wild animals - the main gist of the game is building and optimizing things like miners/conveyor belts/smeltors/assemblers/etc to automate the pillaging of the environment with increasing efficiency… which admittedly sounds more like work than play, but this title caught me a bit off guard with how fun and - true to its name - satisfying it is play.
This is basically “Honey I Shrunk The Kids” as a survival builder. Set in the 80s, you and up to three others are teens that miniaturized by… well you gotta figure out the how and why, and how to return to normal size by navigating the back yard of a scientist with some knowledge on the tech. TBH, I didn’t really expect much from this game, but found myself having a ridiculous amount of fun with it. It is REALLY well made - the attention to detail is insane, from the yard design to build pieces. I wish I had this game when I was a kid, but still enjoyed the hell out of it in my 30s.