I wouldn’t really call it a favorite, but I definitely ended up liking Nier: Automata pretty well after bouncing off it really hard when trying it at a friend’s house. That’s because we were trying from the start, and it starts with a section that’s about half an hour long, with only two checkpoints, vastly harder than anything else in the game, and in which the first half isn’t even the same genre as the rest of the game. It’s seriously one of the worst intros I can think of in a video game. The rest of the game is, y’know, a pretty good third-person action RPG.
Thief: The Dark Project
My brother had acquired a pirated copy for me. But the videos and dialogues had been stripped out to save space. He was gushing about how your footsteps would make different sounds on different floor types, but I already knew that from Jedi Knight. So I really didn’t get what the fuzz was about.
Don’t know how much time later I got a full copy and completely fell in love. It’s one of my all time favourite games. The atmosphere is the best. And the different footstep sounds actually serve a gameplay purpose.
Nice. Definitely check out the Hitman series and the Dishonored series if you love stealth
Outer Wilds. I went to the hollow planet early and got very frustrated with the platforming and falling rocks.
I returned to it almost a year later and gave it a chance based on everyone’s praise. Very glad I did.
This is one that I have to come back to.
You should. Make sure you pick it up when you have time to really wrap your head around it. When I finally played through it, it was over a Christmas holiday. I don’t think it’s the sort of game that would lend itself well to being played in 1-2 hour chunks after work every night for a week when you’re feeling burned out. You gotta be able to sink your teeth into it
Auralux 2
Cyberpunk. Hated all the stuff with Johnny in the beginning. Came back later and actually played through the entire game.
Played through it multiple times now and still not a fan of the Silverhand story. Would’ve much rather kept Jackie throughout.
Like if V and Jackie kept rising and either rolled together or became adversaries in the end
That would of been great. I just hated being torn out of V’s story and having to do the Johnny stuff. I’m usually pretty busy and have started disliking games with long unskipable cut scenes because I just want to zone out and play something for a minute. That’s all the silver hand parts felt like to me was a cutscene.
Doom Eternal
I played on easy mode, over the course of months slogged my way through over half the game getting wrecked and HATING it. And then one day…
Everything clicked. I got into the Fun Zone or Flow State or whatever it’s called. And I have been obsessed ever since. I play at least a few minutes almost every night for years now. I can now comfortably beat it in the hardest difficulty, including the DLC. And it never stops being so much fun and satisfying!
Are the DLC any good? I wanted to do more ripping and tearing but the ratings on Steam are pretty bad.
Yes! I’ve played through all of the DLC many times. Here’s some details:
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There’s “only” six new stages… but these stages are MASSIVE. It did not feel short to me.
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When it was first released, the difficulty was insane. But the developers realized this and shortly released a patch to remove or tone down many of the ridiculous parts. For reference, I don’t consider myself a particularly good player (for example, I can’t do the quick swap move between two weapons) but I can beat the DLC on the hardest difficulty, Nightmare Mode.
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The arenas / fights are the reason I play Doom Eternal, and the DLC gave me exactly what I wanted, more fights! Some of the fights feel like “throw more enemies at the player”, which is what I wanted. Some of the fights feel veeeery gimmicky, but even those grew on me. For example, a room where like 20 Pinky Demons spawn in. It’s surprisingly fun, challenging, and a nice change of pace.
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There’s two new boss fights. The first one is VERY HARD, but I enjoy the concept. It’s very video gamey, and provides some clever new challenges. The second, final boss fight… I was dreading it on Nightmare, but not only was it not too challenging for me, I actually kind of enjoyed it! Many people whine about the final boss fight. To me, it seems obvious the developers were going for a “Super Marauder” type of fight. Like, the regular Marauder battles but MORE. I thought it was clever!
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There’s new suit upgrades. I don’t really use them, but they’re fun to collect.
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The one new weapon, the Hammer, is SO MUCH FUN.
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The new enemies… I love to hate them. Once again, they’re pretty gimmicky, but I enjoy the new challenge. My biggest complaint is any enemies that make you wait to attack them. Like, I’ve got these amazing weapons but the game won’t let me use them on this enemy. 😒😒😒
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I love the new music! I love the music in the main game too, but I find myself humming the music from the DLC more.
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THE ENVIRONMENTS. So, I got the DLC on sale for $10 each, and I was worried about wasting my money. UNTIL I STARTED STAGE ONE, took one look (I hadn’t even moved yet) and immediately thought, this was worth it. Love the new stage themes / environments.
…I think that’s everything. Let me know if you have any more questions! Yes, the DLC was well worth it to me, and I still enjoy replaying it.
Just finished the DLC now and for 12 bucks I think the DLCs are excellent. Not worth 40 bucks but definitely worth it on sale.
The double marauder encounters were incredibly annoying and some platform/puzzle segments were pretty unclear on where you need to go. Having to add lengthy cutscenes so people know where to go sort of should tell them that the level design is not up to spec. But overall very enjoyable, thanks for the recommendation!
Thanks for following up! 🙂
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Stardew Valley. I don’t know why I didn’t get it the first time. Maybe it was the art style? Now it becomes my daily routine…
That game was the total opposite for me. Played it at launch and sunk in like 40h in a week. Absolutely loved it. Put it aside for a while and I have never been able to spend more than 30m on it since…
Skyrim, thought it was boring at first but started again after a friend got it 1 month after me, im currently on what feels like my hundreth playthrough and it still is my all time favorit
Oblivion for me. I had no idea what to do once I left the sewer, I was overwhelmed. But I brought it to a friend’s house and he helped give me some direction. I’ll always be thankful for that because elder scrolls is now my absolute favorite IP for video games
Elden Ring. So glad a friend dragged me back. Stone cold masterpiece.
Oof, this one pains me.
I bought it on release and played for like 2 hours, only to never pick it up again.
Watch Dogs 2
WD1 was alright (I really liked the dark atmosphere and Aiden himself, but a generic revenge story in a world where Blume could have been the big bad (and hacking was, for me, underwhelming) felt like a missed opportunity), WD2 was the best (a focus on hacking, and on the true enemy, Blume, in exchange for a tonal shift, which worked well, but I still wanted WD2 with the darker feel of WD1), and Legion feels a bit empty (from a character perspective). I could go into a deep analysis of why I don’t like the character system or I could just point you to Whitelight’s video on Legion: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRaMnCHleDs
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://www.piped.video/watch?v=jRaMnCHleDs
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Eve online.
Hows the active player count and meta looking these days?
Afair ccp has been killing the game for some time now.
As far as I notice they aren’t “killing the game” but I’ve been much happier since I gave up the idea of doing big null sec corpo blob wars and I assume those are the people that might have valid complaints.
I love the small gang cheap ship roams. Nothing like a fleet of mining frigates loaded for bear jumping haulers and randos in null sec. You get to be your own bait. I have been a little sad about the stealth nerfs, I miss just roaming in a stealth ship solo.
I’ve never found another game that can make my heart pound and adrenaline race like eve online.
What stealth nerfs? Did they nerf my beloved Astero?
I was a worhmoler back when I was still playing so big null block stuff isn’t really my forte
They made it so people can build structures that periodically ping the whole system and destealth your ship. Primarily aimed at stealth campers but it can occasionally catch you out if your roaming around being nosy.
I got Rhythm Heaven Fever for the Wii when it first came out and just couldn’t get it. I mean, I understood what I was supposed to be doing, but I could barely pass any of the songs. I figured I just didn’t have any rhythm and put it on the shelf.
Fast-forward to 2020 when I was rearranging some stuff and came across Rhythm Heaven Fever again. I hooked my Wii back up for shits and giggles and started playing and was doing great. Either I had magically gained a sense of rhythm or (most likely) the TV I had been playing on when I first got the game had some sort of latency issue.
Now I’ve gone through all the Rhythm Heaven games, but Fever is still my hands-down favorite. I put a copy on my Steam Deck and sometimes I just load it up and play through some songs when I have a few minutes to kill.
That’s how I feel about Guitar Hero. It was cool when I was in early middle school, but I was bad at it. A while ago I’ve discovered Clone Hero (it’s free!) and started playing it. I now play only expert and I’ve gotten pretty good by my standards. I use a Wii guitar via Bluetooth and it’s very good.
Death Stranding. As a Metal Gear fanatic, the disappointment I felt on my first attempt at playing it was immense. Only got a few hours in before writing off as just not for me. Tried again in a different frame of mind, different time in my life, and it clicked. One of my fav games of all time.
I just played it through for the first time. What an experience it was! I’ve never played a game like it before. It’s a story that will stick with me for years.
Fallout 3
