Voices of the Void.
Oh, wait. It’s free right now??? Go get it!
Command & Conquer, Tie Fighter, Simpsons Doom, Quake, Portal, and DDR.
Skyrim. I know, it’s been re-released a dozen times now, it’s buggy as fuck, etc etc, but fuck me if it isn’t an enjoyable game, even without mods.
Fallout New Vegas. It doesn’t treat you like mr savior of the universe, you’re a (un)lucky nobody caught in the middle of a power struggle. No essential NPCs, you can kill everyone you come across.
Age of Empires 2. Old as fuck, still enjoyable. Thank god the remaster lets you play with higher screen resolutions.
I’d recommend Morrowind over Skyrim and FONV. It gives you total freedom.
As opposed to FONV, where you can kill most people, unlike what you said, you can kill anyone in Morrowind. FONV always has the fallback of Yes Man. Morrowind you can nearly lock yourself out of progress in the main quest if you kill the wrong people. There is always a way to finish it, but it requires much more from the player and most people probably would never figure it out.
It also gives you a lot more ways to play. There’s no fast travel from the map, but there’s tons of travel options. There are several places through the map that take you from one place to another, but there’s also two spells (that can also be on scrolls) that teleport you to the nearest of a type of structure. There’s mark and recall to mark a place and be able to return there. Then there’s magic like fortifying athletics to jump really far, combined with featherfall or something to land safely, or levitation, or so many other options. You can also use these things on followers, so escorts quests can be accelerated by buffing the NPC. There’s just so much more freedom they started removing after Morrowind.
The world is also designed as a lived in world first seemingly and a video game second. Skyrim especially is designed like an amusement park. Every dungeon is a roller-coaster with a very designed path and no freedom. Morrowind they feel like places, and there are so many ways you can navigate them usually. This can be frustrating, because you can get lost, but it isn’t that bad and feels more interesting than the same thing over and over.
Don’t hate me, but I like Cyberpunk 2077. It may have had its problems at launch, and I heard people were promised all kinds of stuff that was not delived, or was delivered only much later, but I never listen to hype anyway. I’ve played this for many hours. There are great mods for that game that make it even better, and it has such cool characters, such a fascinating world, good music, great design, the combat is fun… I love it.
I played the game at launch and didn’t enjoy it. Got a Steam Deck, learned how to use gyro aiming in a different game and came back to CP2077 a few months ago and… holy shit this game is fantastic. Some of the writing can be a bit jank, and its still a little buggy, but overall, really enjoyable game.
I agree. It is exactly the aesthetic I wanted when I heard about it and I love it. And also, the story is pretty good, and so are the actors.
on one side, yeah it’s pretty af
on the other, driving in circles is funner than actually playing. Its so smoothing 🥹
for me it was definitely worth the $35 I spent on it.
You can’t buy them anymore. They’re all got delisted from every store by the publisher.
So stop crying about it and tell us your must-pirate games already.
Katamari! It’s just such a wild and fun experience. Even the sequels.
Nier Automata: It’s a game that uses every aspect of the medium. From the story, the music, game play, even the end credits, it feels like they took such care in crafting a memorable experience and didn’t let anything they could use to express themselves go to waste.
What Remains of Edith Finch, specifically Lewis’ chapter. I think it’s an excellent portrayal of how incedious and overwhelming depression can be.
Telltale’s the Walking Dead (first one only): I was not prepared for the story. I wish they took the same care in the sequals, but I feel like the quality of the first one just came out of nowhere.
Any Monster Hunter. I just think it’s neat.
I remember playing Katamari, and it having really unique gameplay. I’ll have to check out the other ones you mentioned. They seem pretty cool! Thanks for the suggestions!
I hope you enjoy them!
Doom 1993/doom 2. Decades of gaming since it came out and STILL nothing has beat the tactile sound of the super shotgun paired with the moans of demons collapsing. Absolutely amazing. though I only have 100+ hours in these 2 games combined they are a must play.
Closest I can think of is the engineers plasma gun in Deep Rock Galactic which is my #2 must play game. Its SO fun and a successful grapple + special powder x2 + grapple + skull crusher to get into a nitra vein when the engie isn’t around is so incredibly satisfying. 1700 hours shows I love it so much.
Minecraft. Need I say more? rough estimate as a lot hasn’t been tracked but 1500 on switch and 153 days on prismlauncher is around 5,000 hours in this silly block game.
EDIT: didn’t expect the variety of games in this thread, very interesting
omori
the binding of isaac and deep rock galactic. best games I’ve ever played oh and maybe minecraft (I’m 28 and the past 2 weeks got into the mc rabbit hole AGAIN)
DID I HEAR A ROCK AND STONE? ♦️🟨🐛🔫🧍♂️"I JUST POPPED A LOOTBUG!!"
ROCK AND STONE BROTHER!
Tunic - at face value it is a gorgeous, brilliantly fun souslike. Beneath the surface, however, it becomes apparent that the “souls like” part of it is a facade for the true game. Probably one of the single greatest gaming experiences of all time.
The Witcher 3 - it often goes on sale for like… £3 or something ridiculous, and its a standout example of an excellent open world RPG.
Celeste - possibly the single greatest (2d) platforming game ever made, with a soundtrack that is truly unforgettable by the great Lena Raine. Also if you play it you’ll find out you’re trans*
*(your mileage may vary)
Done Celeste… Well… Still playing. Done A-B-C sides. Now I’m onto the D sides which are fan made. Way harder but it’s really well made. Feel official. There’s also the Stawberry Jam mod which offer like a full game worth of content. Didn’t play that much yet.
Its in my highest ranked game. It’s up there with a very few masterpieces. Like top 5 ish ever. I don’t think it’s for everybody but goddamn this game is something.
I will always say TUNIC in these threads. One of the best gaming experiences of my life.
I’m a similar vein, Outer Wilds is also excellent.
There definitely different experiences. But, they are both a “go in blind and just explore” kind of game.
I played Celeste. Later I figured out the word for the way I’ve always felt was trans. These events were unrelated, but the correlation remains.
Valheim is definitely a must buy. It’s a survival game with crafting and building elements.
And whoever likes Valheim should have a look at 7 Days to Die and The Forest (and probably The Forest 2, but I haven’t played that one yet).
I had a lot of fun on Ark: survival evolved. Never really touched multiplayer because that’s how I am, but I had a lot of fun in it anyways.
I haven’t seen it mentioned here, so I’ll rep for Noita. It’s an amazing rogue-like with great atmosphere and a really compelling world to explore.
There’s a chemistry/alchemy system in the game that is really detailed and fun to explore. The game’s tagline is “every pixel simulated,” and it’s not an exaggeration. Noita is like those falling sand games that were popular in the early 2000s, where each particle of sand could interact with other particles. Imagine that, but you’re a badass witch flying through the world and blasting motherfuckers who try to get in your way. Your wands can set things on fire or freeze them or melt them with acid or blow them up or other crazy shit.
The wand mechanics are incredibly deep. Like, it’s not “turing complete” levels of deep, but the rules for spells interact in incredibly interesting and exploitable ways. The feeling you get when you discover a powerful combo of spells is incredible.
The devs also have a cool policy of turning bugs into gameplay mechanics. I really can’t say much about this without spoiling things, so this one is hard to talk about. Basically, if someone finds an exploit, they oftentimes won’t “fix” it. Instead, they’ll take it and tweak it to add consequences for using the exploit, or they’ll balance it a bit to make it harder/remove a bit of the benefit. It’s a really cool approach and has lead to a great relationship between the devs and the community. They don’t take our toys away, they just make them work better in the world.
I played the game completely blind until I got my first win (it took about 80 hours of playtime), and I’d highly recommend that approach for folks who are willing to tolerate failure and who like to experiment. If it’s too frustrating then that’s okay, there are a lot of guides out there to help out new players without giving up too much. Many people describe your first win as you beating the tutorial, and there’s some truth to that.
It can be gruellingly difficult at times, but it’s just so damn good, and there’s so damn much of it. I have around 600 hours in in that game which is twice as much as any other game I’ve played.
I’ll back this up, and recommend people having a hard time look into Spell Labs on the steam workshop (and elsewhere) to help get further into the game. Once the game really clicks, it’s super satisfying. Even before then, the ridiculous wonder of all the things are great. It’s just as hard as it is amazing and that can be a turn off. There are other quality of life mods available in the workshop for people wanting to just enjoy the game, but the tutorial in Spell Labs is one of the biggest helps I got in unlocking progression.
Noita Together sessions were the big thing that turned the game into an obsession for me.
Noita is my favorite game that I’m terrible at, lol. I love Metroidvanias & everything Roguelike/Roguelite, so this game ticks the right boxes for me. I die in more spectacular ways Everytime I play, but still have a good time.
Pathologic 2! It’s so good! And the next one is coming out next year so it’s a great time to become obsessed with Pathologic!
Not everyone likes every genre of game - so here’s my grouped list:
The “I’m a nerd and like to build things and I like to watch lava lamps flow” Factorio
The “I enjoy tough but fair games that I can totally become OP in once I figure it out” Elden Ring
The “I just want to chill” game Stardew Valley
The “I like to build things” game minecraft Honorable mention-Terraria
The “Metroidvania” game Hollow Knight
The “Arpg” game Diablo 2 Honorable mention - PoE
The “I like action and smashing things in an open world” game Neir Automata Honorable mention - God of war (play one of the originals so you can 1st hate the remake, and then get to THAT point, and then happily eat crow and let Kratos be your baby daddy.
Maybe I’m doing something wrong but Stardew Valley stresses me out way more than many other games. There’s so little time
I managed to get into Stardew after some insistence, but I also struggled with this for a long time and I know exactly why in my case after coming back to harvest moon for a bit: the player character is too slow. You spend soooo much time walking and unlike HM/RF you don’t have a sprint button, so everything becomes more stressful to do.
See, after one year everything repeats indefinitely. You literally can’t miss anything. So there’s actually infinite time. If you’re stressing out like “omg spring is gone and I didn’t grow abc”. That’s what’s supposed to happen - you’ll grow it next spring.
Even the individual days go by so fast though
I have so many problems with Elden Ring. I know it is super popular, but the polish just isn’t there. Enemies hit you through walls and terrain, you will teleport to the ground dead sometimes when run around the many cliff faces, and most of the character builds seem weak compared to just strength great weapons.
I always hear stuff like this but in hundreds of hours of play on both PlayStation 5 and PC. I’ve never experienced any serious bugs. It’s so interesting to me that experiences can vary so much between people.
It depends on how you play for sure. But considering they hide items and secrets paths everywhere, the camera controls are horrendous. And I do not believe you managed to fight the fire giant and did not experience any bugs.
I’ve not even beaten the game and I’ve fallen through the map a few times randomly.
Hollow Knight is the king of a crowded Genre by far. The charm of the world building is spot on and just leaves you wanting more.
I’ve been impatiently waiting for Silksong since I accepted defeat on the endgame content of Hollow Knight for my own sanity.
I keep getting stuck at the beginning in Nier Automata. Is there really no option to save until after like 30+ mins of gameplay?
The game doesn’t punish you if you knock the difficulty down to easy for that section to get through it.
Yup. There’s a story reason for it. It’s actually part of the charm of the game. But that first bit (which should be an intro cake walk, but isn’t) is a bad design choice IMO.
Unfortunately yes. Perfect dodging the first boss regularly gets you killed. So… Play worse. But I promise it’s the only part of the game like that.
some recent games I absolutely loved
- Disco Elysium
- Children of Morta
- Viewfinder
- Planet of Lana
- INSIDE
- Limbo
- Chained Echoes
- Detroit: Become Human
- Triangle Strategy
- Tunic
- Prodeus
