Someone in another thread mentioned they purchased an RTX 3090 for Minecraft, which sounds awesome, but seems excessive, only because I'm not having as much fun with games atm.
So, what games are you having the most fun with, other than Factorio and Cities Skylines?
I only own a MacBook Air and miss my PC days for a more hardcore experience but I find it super hard to find fun games to play (maybe its age...) these days.
The last one I really had fun was:
Desperados III - just a good nostalgia if you were into Commandos like games
Divinity Original Sin 2 - probably the greatest turn-based RPG
SteamWorld Dig 2
Firewatch
Really want to try the suggestions here though like Outer Wilds, Deathloop
Couldn’t recommend it more. Simply beautiful game. Definitely agree with going in completely blind, try not to even read the Steam description, discovering the core mechanics was very much part of the experience for me. I was left very empty when I finished it, I wanted more and more; like finishing a fantastic book. Easily one of my favourite games of all time.
I didn’t enjoy the DLC as much as the base game, it felt rather disconnected. Which was disappointing given how connected the rest of the game is. Still a nice story, just not quite as good for me.
Are there any other similar games I may also enjoy? I’ve also played Journey and found that to be similarly touching. Stray was also very enjoyable for me.
What an incredible game. All I want now are more games like this, where exploration takes the front seat and the player decides how to traverse the narrative and landscape. Breath of the Wild is another fantastic example.
But Outer Wilds sure is something special. Make sure to check out Subnautica if you haven't as well.
Outer Wilds is great but it honestly makes my skin crawl sometimes. The game does a great job of making me feel like I made a big mistake when I hurtling past my target planet and into the abyss
Give Hard space: Ship breaker a try. It's a chore-core set in space where you break down surprisingly believable ships with surprisingly believable physics to a fantastic soundtrack in a kinda-borderlands-precursor universe. It's got a maximum timer of 15m per shift, so it's easy to drop in and out, but you can spend multiple shifts on a particular ship, or just gut the biggest systems and move on every day.
The attention to detail is my favorite part. Good sound of vacuum (dampened and transmitted by touch), good 3d movement and drift, and great attention to pressure and decompression hazards.
Deathloop: I was expecting another FPS, but I've been pleasantly surprised by the story and the characters.
Death Stranding: I've beaten the game, now I'm just trying to collect everything and do all the deliveries. Although stressful, I'm engaging BTs more. The story and the world Hideo Kojima built it's really fascinating.
I've historically played FPS games. Recently stumbled onto Foxhole which is more of a large team strategy game. It's a sort of wargame that emulates multiple aspects of war beyond just the frontline fighting. Imagine an RTS, but you play as a single unit. Every item, weapon, vehicle, etc in the game has to be manufactured by players. Players then have to deliver those to the frontline. There is a whole manufacturing and logistics network outside of the actual combat. There are no combat stats, no killfeed, and very little incentive to play only for solo efforts. Even ranking up requires commendations from your team for playing support roles like medic. Everything is designed around teamwork and long-term efforts towards the war and I really like that. Especially compared to how most games are designed more recently.
What drew me to it was the potential for multiple ways of play. You don't just have to go out and shoot people. You can instead be the guy who digs trenches prepping for defense. Or building structures in a newly captured zone. Being able to switch between them at will. What has kept me playing is the community. Very few games have a player base that will stop what they are doing to explain things to new players. There are definitely goofy players. And probably some trolls. But I've never asked a question in chat and not gotten a serious answer.
While the game doesn't have the same appeal as say, Counter Strike which I thoroughly enjoy, it does have a refreshing style of play. You can play hardcore or casual or anything in between. And sometimes it's nice to just chat with folks while you're pinned down in a trench waiting for backup or a much needed shipment of ammo.
XCOM: Enemy Within with Long War and Long War Rebalance. It blows my mind just how much better the game is with them. This is a turn-based game, but without Long War the game is about carefully activating one enemy group at a time, hoping that RNG is on your side. With Long War Rebalance you don't have to think about defensive positions until the aliens notice your presence, at which point most of them on the map do and a front line forms that you have to break in a timely manner.
Disco Elysium. Robert Kurvitz can write or what, great game. It runs on a toaster, but it's literary aspirations elevate it into a subjective experience you can't reproduce with just an RTX 3090 running hot.
My first play thru was very underwhelming and I had walked away from it for months. I had tried to play it like an old school battlefield and found myself getting frustrated quickly (i.e. constantly dying while trying to learn guns/vehicles).
Then, I gave it one more shot after watching some YouTube video about the new season. None of the new content was actually interesting to me, but I was observing some new gameplay techniques that seemed a bit more compelling.
Now, I play but I don't ever fire a single bullet. I use that class that lets you spot enemies with a drone and I let all the other kids do the hard work for me. In certain game modes, this style of play does feel very rewarding as you can guide the front lines via intelligence. In 128 player modes especially. The average time between spotting and seeing the target site explode is usually less than 5 seconds in the most contested zones.
Stationeers, considering the love that games like factorio and satisfactory get around here I'm surprised I don't see it mentioned more.
The main aim is to build a space colony within a surprisingly detailed physics system, involving things like atmospheric control, pressurising an environment, growing food etc.
Just today I felt proud for being able to pressurise my working area, not realising that filling an atmosphere with 100% oxygen is a recipe for explosive disaster the moment I turned the furnace on :)
Would recommend for fans of factorio, oxygen not included etc.
I have put a ton of hours into Crusader Kings III. It is less complicated than other grand strategy games, but the real fun is leaning into the generative story aspect and roleplaying as your family throughout generations.
It also has a great modding scene, as most of the game logic is defined in text files in a custom scripting language. If you learn a bit about the language it is very easy to get into, you can just edit files in a text editor and the game will automatically live reload and apply your changes.
I am currently playing a game called "Reventure" [0]. The objective of this game is taking back the Princess from the Dark Lord. The funny thing about the game is that you can select different paths to take back the Princess and it will end with different endings. For example, you are seeing a fisherman during your adventure and somehow you are distracted by what he does. You join the fishing instead of taking back the Princess. The game ends with the story of the fishing :)
Your character appearance changes over time depending on the end of your adventure. Also, there are many items and hidden routes in the game. These make you think about how the journey will end.
I am burnt out of playing video games right now because I played my PlayStation non stop for around 30 days. I found out about this because I made a post on reddit about how I was not enjoying playing video games and people told me to stop playing asap and do other things instead. Great advice, turned out I was actually running away from real life responsibilities.
I guess I've been sort of doing the opposite. Trying to aggressively go after real world responsibilities for a while, and now trying to reconnect with games and chill a bit. Agreed with reddit though.
I've been playing Apex Legends for the last 3 years, for like 3 hours every days for 2.5 years of those 3, but in the last 6 months since I switched jobs, i've been playing maybe 2-3 hours a week because i got burned out.
Definitely not the most graphics-intensive game by a long shot, but I recently discovered "Octopath Traveler" on Steam. It's kinda like those old-school JRPGs from the Super Nintendo days, but with some interesting improvements in graphic quality like focus and depth, lighting, etc., but definitely hits that "nostalgia" vein pretty good. The voice acting isn't bad either, and it's got some depth and isn't a quick 2-hour campaign that's forgettable for $65 bucks; it seems worth your money as far as I can tell.
Other than that, I'm digging on Dying Light 2, Elden Ring, and recently re-played the Middle Earth games, which helped me understand some of the plot in the new Lord of the Rings series that's "airing" on Amazon right now (I'd have been entirely lost otherwise).
I'm also trying Black Desert again, and over on PS5 I'm re-playing The Last of Us Part 2. Also planning to finally give State of Decay 2 over on xbox a real try for once. Seems to have improved quite a bit since release.
Planetside 2. It's a decade old MMO now but still getting substantial updates. It can be quite frustrating because it has shooter gameplay with an effectively open lobby so the teams can be very stacked and you aren't given any matchmaking to make your first sessions easy. There's a lot of confusing and incoherent-by-design stuff with its massive combined-arms PVP scope. It doesn't have enough player population to be a really complete experience round-the-clock now. As well, there's the usual laundry list of old bugs and accumulated cruft that may never be addressed. But the deeper you go with it, the more evident it is that there is no equivalent game. Battlefield gives some of the flavor(and PS2's moment-to-moment is largely copied from BFBC2), but it's far more tame and controlled.
Age of Empires II, in its various incarnations, available on Steam.
They start out at the level of the first expansion, The Conquerors, which really helped game play. Hits that sweet spot, IMHO, of battle + resource management without going into the weeds for micromanaging the different resources.
I'd add that AoE 4 is also pretty fantastic. I love the fact that the campaign starts out with the battle of Hastings, and after each victory they give you the option to watch a history documentary video they produced just for the game, and these videos are REALLY well done! I learned how they built castles from the first one and it's brilliant!
Tekken 7, I have recently started and I really like the complexity of a 3d fighter. Major plus is that its a 1v1 competitive game, so all my losses are on me. I can't blame my teammates nor do i have to depend on them to not lose the game.
Please do yourself a favour and do =not= play online until you're really good. It's a frustrating experience, to say the least. The online players will combo your ass so much you just can't do anything to defend yourself!
[+] [-] kirso|3 years ago|reply
The last one I really had fun was: Desperados III - just a good nostalgia if you were into Commandos like games Divinity Original Sin 2 - probably the greatest turn-based RPG SteamWorld Dig 2 Firewatch
Really want to try the suggestions here though like Outer Wilds, Deathloop
[+] [-] chrisdalke|3 years ago|reply
If anyone sees this and plays the game, don’t read any reviews or information online! Go in completely blind and you will not regret it.
[+] [-] oarmstrong|3 years ago|reply
I didn’t enjoy the DLC as much as the base game, it felt rather disconnected. Which was disappointing given how connected the rest of the game is. Still a nice story, just not quite as good for me.
Are there any other similar games I may also enjoy? I’ve also played Journey and found that to be similarly touching. Stray was also very enjoyable for me.
[+] [-] soulofmischief|3 years ago|reply
But Outer Wilds sure is something special. Make sure to check out Subnautica if you haven't as well.
[+] [-] algoatecorn|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] andrei_says_|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jvanderbot|3 years ago|reply
The attention to detail is my favorite part. Good sound of vacuum (dampened and transmitted by touch), good 3d movement and drift, and great attention to pressure and decompression hazards.
[+] [-] brailsafe|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] omar12|3 years ago|reply
Death Stranding: I've beaten the game, now I'm just trying to collect everything and do all the deliveries. Although stressful, I'm engaging BTs more. The story and the world Hideo Kojima built it's really fascinating.
[+] [-] Zazezizozuzy|3 years ago|reply
What drew me to it was the potential for multiple ways of play. You don't just have to go out and shoot people. You can instead be the guy who digs trenches prepping for defense. Or building structures in a newly captured zone. Being able to switch between them at will. What has kept me playing is the community. Very few games have a player base that will stop what they are doing to explain things to new players. There are definitely goofy players. And probably some trolls. But I've never asked a question in chat and not gotten a serious answer.
While the game doesn't have the same appeal as say, Counter Strike which I thoroughly enjoy, it does have a refreshing style of play. You can play hardcore or casual or anything in between. And sometimes it's nice to just chat with folks while you're pinned down in a trench waiting for backup or a much needed shipment of ammo.
[+] [-] brailsafe|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Comevius|3 years ago|reply
Disco Elysium. Robert Kurvitz can write or what, great game. It runs on a toaster, but it's literary aspirations elevate it into a subjective experience you can't reproduce with just an RTX 3090 running hot.
[+] [-] clircle|3 years ago|reply
Though, after playing XCOM2, I don't know if I can go back to LW.
[+] [-] bob1029|3 years ago|reply
My first play thru was very underwhelming and I had walked away from it for months. I had tried to play it like an old school battlefield and found myself getting frustrated quickly (i.e. constantly dying while trying to learn guns/vehicles).
Then, I gave it one more shot after watching some YouTube video about the new season. None of the new content was actually interesting to me, but I was observing some new gameplay techniques that seemed a bit more compelling.
Now, I play but I don't ever fire a single bullet. I use that class that lets you spot enemies with a drone and I let all the other kids do the hard work for me. In certain game modes, this style of play does feel very rewarding as you can guide the front lines via intelligence. In 128 player modes especially. The average time between spotting and seeing the target site explode is usually less than 5 seconds in the most contested zones.
[+] [-] harwell|3 years ago|reply
The main aim is to build a space colony within a surprisingly detailed physics system, involving things like atmospheric control, pressurising an environment, growing food etc.
Just today I felt proud for being able to pressurise my working area, not realising that filling an atmosphere with 100% oxygen is a recipe for explosive disaster the moment I turned the furnace on :)
Would recommend for fans of factorio, oxygen not included etc.
[+] [-] cdirkx|3 years ago|reply
It also has a great modding scene, as most of the game logic is defined in text files in a custom scripting language. If you learn a bit about the language it is very easy to get into, you can just edit files in a text editor and the game will automatically live reload and apply your changes.
[+] [-] 0x54MUR41|3 years ago|reply
Your character appearance changes over time depending on the end of your adventure. Also, there are many items and hidden routes in the game. These make you think about how the journey will end.
[0]: https://pixelatto.com/store/reventure/
[+] [-] shmde|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brailsafe|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Nextgrid|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brailsafe|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] bravetraveler|3 years ago|reply
Most the time time I'm too exhausted to play anything, and this can be a tough game for that pattern.
[+] [-] RunSet|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MrWiffles|3 years ago|reply
...
don't ask me how I have 10 thumbs. It's embarrassing.
[+] [-] simplyinfinity|3 years ago|reply
Some games i can also recommend are :
Risk Of Rain
Oxygen not included
Overcooked 2 ( goot to play with friends )
and of course, Among Us
[+] [-] brailsafe|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MrWiffles|3 years ago|reply
Other than that, I'm digging on Dying Light 2, Elden Ring, and recently re-played the Middle Earth games, which helped me understand some of the plot in the new Lord of the Rings series that's "airing" on Amazon right now (I'd have been entirely lost otherwise).
I'm also trying Black Desert again, and over on PS5 I'm re-playing The Last of Us Part 2. Also planning to finally give State of Decay 2 over on xbox a real try for once. Seems to have improved quite a bit since release.
[+] [-] syntheweave|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] brailsafe|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] scioto|3 years ago|reply
They start out at the level of the first expansion, The Conquerors, which really helped game play. Hits that sweet spot, IMHO, of battle + resource management without going into the weeds for micromanaging the different resources.
[+] [-] MrWiffles|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] marapuru|3 years ago|reply
Hades is one of the best, especially with a controller. Gameplay is amazing.
Risk of Rain 2 scratched the same itch for me. A run takes about 30/40 minutes and it has a great learning curve.
[+] [-] pranit10|3 years ago|reply
[+] [-] radiojasper|3 years ago|reply