General Video Game Thread
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I found this video really weirdly insightful into what hooks me in video games, particularly MMO’s.
I, uh, I have complex feelings about that.
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Final Fantasy XIV devoured my life for a while, but I found myself really struggling through Shadowbringers. Eventually forced myself to reach Endwalker but I’ve found I just don’t care about the story anymore, and that’s the only reason I was playing. It’s a bit sad, especially because I absolutely adored everything they were doing in Heavensward, but maybe it’s for the best. It gives me time to play other games now, and read fanfiction, and all the other stuff I’ve been neglecting.
Like Payday 2! I bought that during the Steam summer sale and gosh was that money well spent. I’m not super good at it but it is such super ridiculous and goofy fun! I just need to wrangle more of my friends into playing it with me.
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Across the Obelisk scratches much the same itch as Wildermyth. Very fun multi-player.
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I’ve been making my cult followers eat poop in Cult of the Lamb.
I don’t regret my life choices.
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@Testament I love that game! It’s my current addiction!
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FFXIV’s Endwalker is making me cry (good cry, good cry) about three times as much as it did the first time I went through it, and I was dealing with some pretty severe grief at that time (I will say that it was almost as helpful for dealing with said grief as my therapist was, iykyk).
Knowing how it turns out seems to have INCREASED its emotional impact on me. I am amused. I think a significant portion of that is due to the increased attachment I have to the NPCs that got built the first time through. I’ve found a similar effect in earlier expansions (f’rex I really, really did not like Alisaie my first time through ARR; she did not even slightly irritate me the second time through).
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https://www.nexusmods.com/oblivion/mods/52398
This exists. It is a mod that you talk to somebody IC and it sends a RL Domino’s pizza order.
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So I’ve got around 100 un-used Steam keys from various charity bundles from years ago (and maybe another 25ish keys that I’m not sure if I’ve already given to someone or not. I’m bad at keeping track of that stuff apparently) and I’d love to offer them up to ya’ll. I mean they’re probably mostly garbage I assume or I would’ve already taken them for myself, but there’s probably some gems that I already owned or just wasn’t interested in the genre of, or maybe just didn’t give enough credit to.
Problem is, throwing up a list of 100+ games is gonna make for a massive wall of text. To say nothing of how impenetrable that kinda list of names will be when there’s no context or description to go along with any of the names. Like if I say I have a key for ‘Splotches’ that’s probably not going to mean anything to anyone unless they already have the game (Steam says it’s a puzzle game about exploding paint which… doesn’t seem much clearer…)
So… does anyone have any bright ideas? Or dumb ones? Just ideas at all really would be great.
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So was in a similar position last year and wanted to give them to people, it took me a while to set-up but I made a Google Sheet with the following:
Sadly couldn’t find a quick way of doing it except manually typing it in, reviewing what the game was, and adding a steam link. But was something mindless enough to do while watching something in the background. Plus once done, was easy to maintain.
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@Pyrephox said in General Video Game Thread:
@Omen said in General Video Game Thread:
Hi folks! Breaking my lurker silence to highly recommend Outer Wilds. It’s difficult to describe, but is primarily focused on exploration, investigation/puzzle solving and is story driven. If you do end up giving it a shot, I strongly suggest not looking up detailed reviews, synopses or spoilers. It’s way more fun to experience with no knowledge going in.
Seconding this one. It’s an amazingly fun game.
These recommendations were enough to give me a try.
Just finished. What a masterpiece.
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Space Engineers getting some new AI updates soonish, and it’s got me trying to figure out my bullshit hidden ice base blueprint again.
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God of War Ragnarok is real damn good.
That’s really all I have to say on it.
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So I bought Harvestella, and I have to say, it has a damn fine story. It’s not going to win awards for engaging combat (it’s literally just a system where you exploit weapon type and/or elemental weaknesses) but I do not regret my purchase. I’ve spent over 60 hours on it; I’ve got my money’s worth and the story was very engaging and not full of plot holes once I got through the introductory stuff.
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@dvoraen said in General Video Game Thread:
So I bought Harvestella, and I have to say, it has a damn fine story. It’s not going to win awards for engaging combat (it’s literally just a system where you exploit weapon type and/or elemental weaknesses) but I do not regret my purchase. I’ve spent over 60 hours on it; I’ve got my money’s worth and the story was very engaging and not full of plot holes once I got through the introductory stuff.
Def my favorite game so far this year. The farming loop is excellent. Working my way through the post-game content now. Combat wise, I’m going to disagree with it not being engaging – there’s a party, jobs, and a variety of skills to be used. Compared even to Rune Factory, it’s miles and miles and miles better. So for folks approaching it from the genre side (and not the jrpg side), in my opinion it’s hands down the most engaging combat system we’ve gotten from a villager game so far (My Time at Portia is my second favorite; it’s not anywhere near this complex, but hits land and it feels really good).
It’s not great combat for an ARPG, but it’s a farming/life sim, not an ARPG.
I definitely do not recommend it if villager games aren’t your thing – the RPG parts are good, the story is good, but it’s not good enough to make up for genre conventions that folks don’t typically like (passing out at midnight, limited dodge mechanics to require healing, not being able to get rid of big rocks from your plot until tool upgrades, that sort of thing).
It also dialed down the social grind; there’s no gifting, and key NPC relationships are built with their story/sidequests (which also unlocks advances for your jobs). Choosing a life partner and them moving in is post-game, there are no kids, and the partner being at your house the only thing they do is greetings, there’s no further story or anything thus far. Basically identical to post-marriage SDV minus kids.
Modding community is established and they’re working on the tools that will allow folks to do the magic.
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While waiting for Diablo 4 to come out, are there any addictive, grindy and mindless games in roughly the same vein out there?
What I like about D3 is just the time-sink aspect of it. All those self-feeding loops trying to hit that perfect gearing curve make for a nice distraction without needing to focus too much on anything but playing what’s on the screen in front of me.
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The Torchlight games are the closest I’ve found.
the entity previously known as Sunny
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@Arkandel I had a lot of fun with Path of Exile, even with the complexities of it. It felt to me like what D3 would have been if Blizzard had doubled down on the everything of D2.
I also had a lot of fun with Lost Ark too but fell off after like 160 hours or so. I think I only had half of the continents discovered by that point. A lot of content, for sure.
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@IoleRae Because all the best Diablo developers work on Torchlight! It’s so so so fun.
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@Arkandel It’s a platformer rather than a top-down RPG but Dead Cells sounds like it has a lot of what you’re looking for.
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I’ve honestly had so much fun playing Rimworld. I’m grateful for @tsar and @Snackness who not only introduced me to this game but listen to me ramble endlessly about my vampires needing bloodboys or complain about how my dumb idiots keep naming themselves LADY and BABY.
