It might be related to the recently announced move to make Ubisoft Connect completely optional for Steam games.
I’m just speculating since they only mentioned it in regards to The Rogue Prince of Persia (bottom of the page) but they might roll out it to everything else as well? Maybe? Possibly.
Kane & Lynch 2 Dog Days - War Junkie - I love the contrast between the rough and shitty situation of a dude who can’t let go of criminal life compared to a psychopath who managed to get his life together.
Does NMS allow you to play the older patches at least? It really sucks whenever games change significantly without an ability to stick with what you like.
I really like checking out oldies in their original form, even if there’s a “better” remake/remaster available. It’s fun to see what those games had to offer in their prime.
As for Cyberpunk, I’m playing both the most up to date version (2.13 with Phantom Liberty + mods) and the legacy one (version 1.16).
There were a lot of gameplay and design changes in the 2.0 release. Since I played the game before that, I had a constant reaction of some things being… off. I wasn’t sure whether my mixed feelings had to do with nostalgia or if I really liked some of the old gameplay more, so I decided to reinstall the legacy version to confirm (thanks CDPR for keeping it available).
Long story short, while I do like some of the things they did with the game and genuinely believe it’s a better product overall, I’d be lying if I said I prefer the new version. I still have fun and all the technical improvements, free content and access to mods make for an easy choice but boy do I wish there was a way to port those to the legacy version. There are a few mods that restore some of the old design choices which gives me a sliver of hope for a potential larger restoration in the future. For now though, I’ll just keep enjoying what’s there.
Mostly Spyro (the PSX one) and both versions of Cyberpunk 2077. Alternatively Muse Dash if I don’t have much time (or will) to go for a longer session.
I currently doing a playthrough funnily enough, didn’t realize it was so close to an anniversary.
I’ve been spending more time exploring and doing side activities this time around, just driving around and taking photos. It ended up being quite a surprising experience. I was surprised with how easy the game is, how fast the story moves or how empty some parts of the world are (makes sense considering when it released). Taking the world in a more touristy way was an interesting change compared to how I experienced those games before. It’s also a way of playing I’ve been trying to move towards more and more recently (doing the same with Cyberpunk as well).
I still think it’s a great game but IV and, to lesser extent, Vice City are probably my favorites as far as mainline games are concerned. IV especially as it had a nice grounded approach to gameplay with weighty movement, interactions and driving, as well as the story - it sucks most people hated this as GTAV ended up being a rather mid experience for me.
I only properly played 1, 2 and a bit of Black Flag but based on that and what I’ve seen from all the other games I’m gonna stick with the first one.
Investigations were… well actual investigation, gameplay mechanics while simple and satisfying weren’t overly automated and the game wasn’t burdened with all the bloat that came afterwards. Simplified movement system from later games, one that’s fighting you whenever you try to do something even a little out of game’s comfort zone, is probably my major sticking point with the series.
That said, I’m not sure if that would be the best choice for you. If you want to try the classic approach I’d suggest going with the Ezio trilogy (II, Brotherhood, Revelations) as these games are more polished, if a little bloated, compared to the first game. They should still hold up well enough to have fun.