Yeah i really prefer the lovecraft aesthetic of Quake 1 over the tech, body horror of the sequels. Science coming into contact with something that defies science and reason is one of my favorite genres of fiction. The Myst, Event Horizon, Doom (especially Doom 3,) and the newest Rimworld dlc all really scratch that itch of coming into contact with something outside of reality, outside of reason and understanding. Really wish for more of that.
Something that I think doom 2016 and doom eternal failed spectacularly in for me is enemy counts. I wanna open a closet and be greeted by 40 revenants, 30 Chaingunners and 30 Barons. Gimme that Plutonia experience.
Have you played it after the 2.0 update? The combat feels awesome, as least my build did. I also disagree with the openworld being empty, driving around, listening to music, was one of my favorite things to do. Occasionally coming across little stories and unmarked encampments was really fun.
Man the grind is rough in Elite Dangerous if you want to participate in PvP. Material grinding is so painful, i wish they never added engineering, or only had 2 levels of it instead of 5. Im still waiting for ship interiors too.
Yeah, I’ve been moving over to Call of Cthulhu with my tabletop group. I find it far more enjoyable when the players are more careful about dying or worse.
MGS1 is my favorite of the series and is one of my favorite stories in gaming. It’s an incredibly mature story for all the wackiness thats still in it. The music is perfection. The performances are incredible. The characters are great. I love everything about this game. I think, somehow, the low poly graphics and textures adds a lot to the realism and grittiness of the game, despite being fairly arcady in gameplay. At this point in the story, almost everything that happens in it is believable, other than the supernatural parts (which are, in this game, actual supernatural powers, which adds a whole new layer of mystery!) I HATE how over explained everything became in MGS4 and MGS5, (and to some extent, mgs3 even.) I think MGS4 kind of ruined the series for me, even though mgs4 has my favorite gameplay. MGS5 just felt like a Ubisoft collectathon game to me, and vocal parasites can lick my ass with how dumb it is. It has good moments, but it feels rather aimless compared to MGS1-3.
1 has the most serious tone, but still has some goofiness and arcadiness that really meshes well with the story and visuals somehow. 2 and 3 stayed strong with the story, both being more goofy, but also having deeper meanings and plots. I like 1-3 a lot, and even 4 is a fun romp, but 5 just could not hold me. Ground Zeros was great! But Phantom Pain is just a slog for me.
Doom 3 is my favorite one to play when there’s combat and its had some tweaks to the gunplay (like fixing the god-awful shotgun spread to be more normal, greatly reducing ammo amounts, and increasing armor effectiveness,) but if i want a really fun experience, I tend to do Doom 2, or Plutonia. The newer doom games don’t have enough mobs spawning in, and a lot of the levels just feel like combat arenas, (less so in Eternal) instead of places to explore. I think a lot of people overlook the exploration of the og doom games and 3. I liked how demons could roam the halls in Doom 1 and 2, and it really made the levels feel a bit more sandboxy imo. Not to say Doom 2016 and Doom Eternal are bad games, certainly not! It’s just a lot easier for me to sit down and play a few levels of doom 1 or 2 for 30 minutes or an hour, instead of getting invested in complex, more intense gameplay.
Doom 1 and 2 typically relieve stress, though can be challenging, while in doom 2016 and eternal, i feel overwhelmed sometimes and kinda have a bad time cuz I need to focus too much, constantly switching weapons and whatnot. Sometimes i just wanna mow down a horde of zombiemen and imps with a chaingun or ssg.
Simcity 2000. I am a huge fan of Blade Runner and Simcity 2K has a very Blade Runner esque soundtrack and I’m LOVING it. I never picked up on the Blade Runner aesthetics in SC2K until recently, particularly after watching the movie for the most recent time. Sure, I played it as a kid, but I didn’t watch Blade Runner till i was an adult, so revisiting it now made it very fun. I made a cyberpunk city with high crime, a large focus on commercial zones, and building only the Plymoth and Draco super buildings.