The greater realization still coming for you is that it was always a curling thread, and you're actually curling right now, the past several years just a moment in time as you line up your next epic shot.
The greater realization still coming for you is that it was always a curling thread, and you're actually curling right now, the past several years just a moment in time as you line up your next epic shot.
Just pre-purchased the Nemesis expansion for Stellaris which comes out around this time next month.
Speaking of Stellaris, there's a board game on Kickstarter. It's slightly exceeded its £36,000 goal, currently standing at £1.6M with 20 days left on the clock.
Looks like a pretty neat game for folks who actually have folks around to play in meatspace.
Edit: removed link to the KS page, my b
The Stellaris bundle on Humble looks like an awesome deal, so between that and the charity it's supporting, I'll probably go for the game plus DLCs. But I'm dreading adding another big time sink to my backlog.
Maybe the galactic 4X setting won't get its hooks in me quite as deep as Europa Universalis, where it was always fun to eff up the history books and make Bender learn a bunch of new kings.
"Because things are the way they are, things will not stay the way they are." - Bertolt Brecht
White Dwarf is a magazine that is produced by Games Workshop, and it's centered on their Warhammer franchises ("White Dwarf" was picked as a name because it could represent both science fiction {the stellar phenomenon} as well as fantasy {initially named after Snorri Whitebeard, but now named after Grombrindal, the White Dwarf}). It exists as both a deep resource for new lore, rules, strategies, and Battle Reports (photo and text essays detailing tabletop battles played by staff members), as well as generally being a glorified advertising catalog for grossly overpriced plastic miniatures.
Anyway, the next issue of White Dwarf (number 462) will feature a Steam code inside that will unlock 12 Warhammer games on Steam:
=====
Games from Warhammer 40,000 (set in the far future, humanity has transformed into a brutal regime after countless millennia of nonstop war, the universe is filled with a number of alien races and they are all hostile, Hell exists and we use it to travel faster than light in 10,000 year old spaceships the size of small moons):
Space Marine
A very solid third person action game where you brutally slaughter like a million Orks.
Dawn of War
A solid RTS set in the Warhammer 40k universe, also the last good Dawn of War game in the series (hiyooooooo)
Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus
Turn based tactical/strategy RPG featuring giant stompy Titans (basically Mechs on steroids). Currently Early Access, but it's looking really good so far and if you like GIANT STOMPY ROBOTS you will probably dig it. This is set around 10,000 years before the current Warhammer 40k timeline, during an event known as the Horus Heresy, where the Imperium of Man was torn apart by a colossal civil war that is essentially 90% of the reason why things are so fucked in the current 40k universe
Sanctus Reach
Grid based strategy featuring the worst chapter in the entire franchise - the Space Wolves (don't @ me)
Space Wolf
Metal Gear AC!D but you're a dumb Space Wolf instead of a character from an actually good chapter
Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon – Da Orks
A standalone expansion for Warhammer 40,000 Armageddon, which is a 2D hex based strategy game. Think Panzer General but with 8 foot tall genetically modified supersoldiers and brutally stupid Orks who build tanks out of scrap metal.
=====
Games from Warhammer Fantasy/Age of Sigmar (Humans, elves, dwarves, orks, demons, vampires, ratmen, undead, lizardpeople, ghosts, monsters, and sentient trees all desperately battle it out on a planet that is about to be literally torn apart by the forces of chaos)
Vermintide 2
What if Left 4 Dead had ratmen instead of zombies, as well as a much larger focus on melee. A lot of fun in co-op, if you buy this and I don't think you're an asshole I'll totally play it with you.
Total War: Warhammer
A hybrid strategy game (turn based but with realtime battles) set in the Warhammer Fantasy world
Warhammer Underworlds Online
A videogame adaptation of the Warhammer Underworlds tabletop board game, which mixes miniatures with cards. This game is actually set in the Age of Sigmar timeline, which comes after The End Times of Warhammer Fantasy (after the planet blew up and shards of it ended up as realms across different dimensions... it's a long story)
Warhammer Quest Warhammer Quest II: The End Times
Turn based dungeon crawling
Talisman
Some weird card game or something, I don't even know
Anyway, White Dwarf costs $9 in the states, and it's a pretty insane deal for the amount of games you're getting, even if you just use the code and throw the magazine away. If you've ever been curious about Warhammer videogames, the 12 they're giving away is a pretty good spread of genres, with some really solid games included. If you've ever been curious about the actual tabletop game, than you'll also get an issue of a magazine that deals with it exclusively. It should be available at Warhammer stores, bookstores, and places where magazines get sold on Friday the 19th.
Woo so had a decent day of work yesterday except for one resident. I've repeated it in chat and feel free to PM me but suffice to say I went heavy on the booze and it wasn't cause St. Patty's is tomorrow.
But you fine folk can tell I'm drunk/having a shitty time, mostly cause I'm shitty to y'all.
But that don't stop ya from giftin
Thanks to @Questor for georifters! Thanks @Malakaius for lewdy armor in Conan (we've been having fun on his hosted island for the island dlc, new update just dropped)! Thanks @chuck steak for vr table tennis!
Also bought myself a game I've had my eye on for awhile cause folks can't figure out what would be on my wishlist.
White Dwarf is a magazine that is produced by Games Workshop, and it's centered on their Warhammer franchises ("White Dwarf" was picked as a name because it could represent both science fiction {the stellar phenomenon} as well as fantasy {initially named after Snorri Whitebeard, but now named after Grombrindal, the White Dwarf}). It exists as both a deep resource for new lore, rules, strategies, and Battle Reports (photo and text essays detailing tabletop battles played by staff members), as well as generally being a glorified advertising catalog for grossly overpriced plastic miniatures.
Anyway, the next issue of White Dwarf (number 462) will feature a Steam code inside that will unlock 12 Warhammer games on Steam:
=====
Games from Warhammer 40,000 (set in the far future, humanity has transformed into a brutal regime after countless millennia of nonstop war, the universe is filled with a number of alien races and they are all hostile, Hell exists and we use it to travel faster than light in 10,000 year old spaceships the size of small moons):
Space Marine
A very solid third person action game where you brutally slaughter like a million Orks.
Dawn of War
A solid RTS set in the Warhammer 40k universe, also the last good Dawn of War game in the series (hiyooooooo)
Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus
Turn based tactical/strategy RPG featuring giant stompy Titans (basically Mechs on steroids). Currently Early Access, but it's looking really good so far and if you like GIANT STOMPY ROBOTS you will probably dig it. This is set around 10,000 years before the current Warhammer 40k timeline, during an event known as the Horus Heresy, where the Imperium of Man was torn apart by a colossal civil war that is essentially 90% of the reason why things are so fucked in the current 40k universe
Sanctus Reach
Grid based strategy featuring the worst chapter in the entire franchise - the Space Wolves (don't @ me)
Space Wolf
Metal Gear AC!D but you're a dumb Space Wolf instead of a character from an actually good chapter
Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon – Da Orks
A standalone expansion for Warhammer 40,000 Armageddon, which is a 2D hex based strategy game. Think Panzer General but with 8 foot tall genetically modified supersoldiers and brutally stupid Orks who build tanks out of scrap metal.
=====
Games from Warhammer Fantasy/Age of Sigmar (Humans, elves, dwarves, orks, demons, vampires, ratmen, undead, lizardpeople, ghosts, monsters, and sentient trees all desperately battle it out on a planet that is about to be literally torn apart by the forces of chaos)
Vermintide 2
What if Left 4 Dead had ratmen instead of zombies, as well as a much larger focus on melee. A lot of fun in co-op, if you buy this and I don't think you're an asshole I'll totally play it with you.
Total War: Warhammer
A hybrid strategy game (turn based but with realtime battles) set in the Warhammer Fantasy world
Warhammer Underworlds Online
A videogame adaptation of the Warhammer Underworlds tabletop board game, which mixes miniatures with cards. This game is actually set in the Age of Sigmar timeline, which comes after The End Times of Warhammer Fantasy (after the planet blew up and shards of it ended up as realms across different dimensions... it's a long story)
Warhammer Quest Warhammer Quest II: The End Times
Turn based dungeon crawling
Talisman
Some weird card game or something, I don't even know
Anyway, White Dwarf costs $9 in the states, and it's a pretty insane deal for the amount of games you're getting, even if you just use the code and throw the magazine away. If you've ever been curious about Warhammer videogames, the 12 they're giving away is a pretty good spread of genres, with some really solid games included. If you've ever been curious about the actual tabletop game, than you'll also get an issue of a magazine that deals with it exclusively. It should be available at Warhammer stores, bookstores, and places where magazines get sold on Friday the 19th.
That takes me back... was a regular White Dwarf reader once. Back in like the early '90s. Damn, I feel old
My ADHD brain is demanding variety and a new game to play. Help me pick something cool. I trust humans more than I trust corporate robots who only want my money.
Games I have recently enjoyed:
Control
FFVII Remake
Horizon Zero Dawn
Ghost of Tsushima
Dishonored Trilogy (I think I liked 2 the best in terms of gameplay; DotO best in terms of writing)
Hades
Biggest things for me in games is Exploration, Lore, and Story. It's not that I don't like puzzles and combat, exactly; it's that if puzzles and combat get in the way of Exploration, Lore, and Story, I start to get annoyed.
Great examples:
I stopped playing Hades recently because I could NOT get the last few conversations with Achillies and Patroclus to trigger, and I'd mostly run out of story/lore/dialogue with everyone else (except Thanatos and Hypnos, but that one is well known to be THE very last thing that unlocks and I wasn't even gonna try).
I got very frustrated with Control until Remedy implemented the "make yourself invincible" accessibility options because I just wanted to hang out and enjoy Brutalist architecture and read office memos but people kept SHOOTING AT ME and/or EXPLODING and it was Very Annoying.
I stopped playing Grim Fandango because some of the puzzles got SO obtuse that even reading a guide I couldn't quite figure out how to get past them, and I gave up.
I am totally fine with older school games; I played Morrowind for the first time in like 2014 and was blown away anyway.
Some stuff I own in my backlog (that I got as gifts or in bundles or whatever) and have been considering:
Sunless Sea: I don't normally care for roguelikes at all, but Hades showed me that they can be fun, and I love the Fallen London universe and have been playing FL itself since 2009. Considering giving it a shot? Might give up early on if I die too much.
Battletech: My friend keeps singing the praises of the writing in this game, but I know very little about it besides "mechs?"
Thief 2: I don't own Thief 1 for some reason? Basically "you liked Dishonored, you should play this!"
Thoughts? Other suggestions? Idefk? There are so many GAMES out there, guys. So many.
Writing is a thing that exists in BattleTech, though it never stood out to me as exceptional in either direction. It is a pretty fun stompy robot game though.
+2
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jungleroomxIt's never too many graves, it's always not enough shovelsRegistered Userregular
Sunless Sea is atmospheric and really intricate in gameplay but is one of those kinds of games that allows you to lose for 5 hours.
How about Going Under, a roguelite that leans heavily on the following:
Binding of Isaac dungeon structure (floors with certain types of rooms, a shop and upgrade on every floor)
With 3D Zelda esque combat, including BotW limited weapon durability.
And themed around startup culture. You are an intern at F`zzle who instead of PR have to get rid of the monster attacks.
I am probably halfway and been having a good time.
It's a roguelite Metroidvania with a lot of exploration, and an interesting and creepy story, with multiple endings. It's also 100% hand-drawn and beautiful. I've had a total blast playing it.
Biggest things for me in games is Exploration, Lore, and Story. It's not that I don't like puzzles and combat, exactly; it's that if puzzles and combat get in the way of Exploration, Lore, and Story, I start to get annoyed.
Assassin's Creed: Odyssey seems like a good fit for your exploration and lore needs.
I wouldn't have recommended BATTLTECH necessarily based on the games you listed as recently enjoyed. There is a star system to explore I guess technically, but the planets are essentially the same and mostly exist to offer up new missions and different store contents. The biomes change, but there are only so many and of you play the whole campaign or career you will see them all well before the halfway mark. Exploration and lore are not the game's strengths. Story is fine to good, but is mostly a framework for moving your mercenary company management forward into more mech battles.
But BATTLETECH is amazing at what it does (lovingly recreate the board game feel of the original tabletop mech shootin' boardgame and wrap it in dopamine delivery drivers of mech upgrades and mech company management milestones.) If you are curious what it's like or want a leg up on the game's poor tutorial, I have a wordy guide linked in my sig that's a walkthrough of the first few hours of the game.
EDIT: Actually, you know what you might enjoy if you don't mind older games? STALKER! Fantastic exploration, world building and atmosphere.
It's a roguelite Metroidvania with a lot of exploration, and an interesting and creepy story, with multiple endings. It's also 100% hand-drawn and beautiful. I've had a total blast playing it.
Sticking with metrovinnyas i'm gonna say Axiom Verge.
It is a game that is incredibly good at making one feel like a tiny ant walking around inside the skeletons of gigantic unknowable nightmares.
But if it's exploration, lore, and story being looked for I dunno if one can do much better than Heaven's Vault. No combat, and the puzzles aren't really puzzles at all except in the sense that archaeology is one big puzzle with layers of interpretation needed to find out a plausible answer.
Writing is a thing that exists in BattleTech, though it never stood out to me as exceptional in either direction. It is a pretty fun stompy robot game though.
Kristen Arno's VA is pretty damn good at pulling off the epic speech though.
My ADHD brain is demanding variety and a new game to play. Help me pick something cool. I trust humans more than I trust corporate robots who only want my money.
Games I have recently enjoyed:
Control
FFVII Remake
Horizon Zero Dawn
Ghost of Tsushima
Dishonored Trilogy (I think I liked 2 the best in terms of gameplay; DotO best in terms of writing)
Hades
Biggest things for me in games is Exploration, Lore, and Story. It's not that I don't like puzzles and combat, exactly; it's that if puzzles and combat get in the way of Exploration, Lore, and Story, I start to get annoyed.
Could you give a short (maybe one or two sentences max) explanations of what you enjoyed in those games? It'd help with suggestions. I get that they can all have the elements you enjoy, but implementation is also important. Like, Horizon has a lot of combat, so I want to make sure that it was either engaging or ignorable enough that it wasn't a big deal; that kind of thing will help a lot in suggesting other games.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
My ADHD brain is demanding variety and a new game to play. Help me pick something cool. I trust humans more than I trust corporate robots who only want my money.
Games I have recently enjoyed:
Control
FFVII Remake
Horizon Zero Dawn
Ghost of Tsushima
Dishonored Trilogy (I think I liked 2 the best in terms of gameplay; DotO best in terms of writing)
Hades
Biggest things for me in games is Exploration, Lore, and Story. It's not that I don't like puzzles and combat, exactly; it's that if puzzles and combat get in the way of Exploration, Lore, and Story, I start to get annoyed.
Great examples:
I stopped playing Hades recently because I could NOT get the last few conversations with Achillies and Patroclus to trigger, and I'd mostly run out of story/lore/dialogue with everyone else (except Thanatos and Hypnos, but that one is well known to be THE very last thing that unlocks and I wasn't even gonna try).
I got very frustrated with Control until Remedy implemented the "make yourself invincible" accessibility options because I just wanted to hang out and enjoy Brutalist architecture and read office memos but people kept SHOOTING AT ME and/or EXPLODING and it was Very Annoying.
I stopped playing Grim Fandango because some of the puzzles got SO obtuse that even reading a guide I couldn't quite figure out how to get past them, and I gave up.
I am totally fine with older school games; I played Morrowind for the first time in like 2014 and was blown away anyway.
Some stuff I own in my backlog (that I got as gifts or in bundles or whatever) and have been considering:
Sunless Sea: I don't normally care for roguelikes at all, but Hades showed me that they can be fun, and I love the Fallen London universe and have been playing FL itself since 2009. Considering giving it a shot? Might give up early on if I die too much.
Battletech: My friend keeps singing the praises of the writing in this game, but I know very little about it besides "mechs?"
Thief 2: I don't own Thief 1 for some reason? Basically "you liked Dishonored, you should play this!"
Thoughts? Other suggestions? Idefk? There are so many GAMES out there, guys. So many.
Sunless Sea can be a lot of fun if you ignore the trap of trying to treat it like a trading/merchant game just because you have a ship with a cargo hold. The game requires you to take longer and riskier voyages to stay solvent even early on which trips up people trying to do quick cargo runs.
You also can ignore a lot of the combat going with a high Veils stat. At some point, zee monsters basically can't see you unless you fire at them even though you are in a very loud and big boat.
That said, even if you do bounce off it you should know that Sunless Skies plays very differently. It trades some of the RPGness of Seas for a more accessible system (though there is supposed to be a big update coming that got postponed by the pandemic). I'll confess I haven't made as much headway through Skies as I did Seas though as the final area available is rough and I can't hide behind RPG cheese as I did in Seas.
My ADHD brain is demanding variety and a new game to play. Help me pick something cool. I trust humans more than I trust corporate robots who only want my money.
Games I have recently enjoyed:
Control
FFVII Remake
Horizon Zero Dawn
Ghost of Tsushima
Dishonored Trilogy (I think I liked 2 the best in terms of gameplay; DotO best in terms of writing)
Hades
Biggest things for me in games is Exploration, Lore, and Story. It's not that I don't like puzzles and combat, exactly; it's that if puzzles and combat get in the way of Exploration, Lore, and Story, I start to get annoyed.
Great examples:
I stopped playing Hades recently because I could NOT get the last few conversations with Achillies and Patroclus to trigger, and I'd mostly run out of story/lore/dialogue with everyone else (except Thanatos and Hypnos, but that one is well known to be THE very last thing that unlocks and I wasn't even gonna try).
I got very frustrated with Control until Remedy implemented the "make yourself invincible" accessibility options because I just wanted to hang out and enjoy Brutalist architecture and read office memos but people kept SHOOTING AT ME and/or EXPLODING and it was Very Annoying.
I stopped playing Grim Fandango because some of the puzzles got SO obtuse that even reading a guide I couldn't quite figure out how to get past them, and I gave up.
I am totally fine with older school games; I played Morrowind for the first time in like 2014 and was blown away anyway.
Some stuff I own in my backlog (that I got as gifts or in bundles or whatever) and have been considering:
Sunless Sea: I don't normally care for roguelikes at all, but Hades showed me that they can be fun, and I love the Fallen London universe and have been playing FL itself since 2009. Considering giving it a shot? Might give up early on if I die too much.
Battletech: My friend keeps singing the praises of the writing in this game, but I know very little about it besides "mechs?"
Thief 2: I don't own Thief 1 for some reason? Basically "you liked Dishonored, you should play this!"
Thoughts? Other suggestions? Idefk? There are so many GAMES out there, guys. So many.
Sunless Sea can be a lot of fun if you ignore the trap of trying to treat it like a trading/merchant game just because you have a ship with a cargo hold. The game requires you to take longer and riskier voyages to stay solvent even early on which trips up people trying to do quick cargo runs.
You also can ignore a lot of the combat going with a high Veils stat. At some point, zee monsters basically can't see you unless you fire at them even though you are in a very loud and big boat.
That said, even if you do bounce off it you should know that Sunless Skies plays very differently. It trades some of the RPGness of Seas for a more accessible system (though there is supposed to be a big update coming that got postponed by the pandemic). I'll confess I haven't made as much headway through Skies as I did Seas though as the final area available is rough and I can't hide behind RPG cheese as I did in Seas.
I second Skies, but aren't all the Sunless Skies players holding their breath for the Sovereign Update that is going to heavily rework the game?
Could you give a short (maybe one or two sentences max) explanations of what you enjoyed in those games? It'd help with suggestions. I get that they can all have the elements you enjoy, but implementation is also important. Like, Horizon has a lot of combat, so I want to make sure that it was either engaging or ignorable enough that it wasn't a big deal; that kind of thing will help a lot in suggesting other games.
Control: Liked reading all the little ephemera like office memos; really enjoyed how exploration opened up/changed as you unlocked new powers. The brutalist architecture is very nostalgic & even almost soothing bc I grew up in the Washington DC area.
FFVII Remake: Nostalgia but with a smart twist that made me think about the original narrative differently. Really filled out the world and made it feel more "real."
Horizon Zero Dawn: Regarding the combat, liked that most of the time, you engaged with combat on your own terms, eg, in very few situations (mostly in the storyline) did you get jumped unexpectedly, so you could set up traps, pick off weak units with headshots, & otherwise turn the situation to your advantage. Once you understand how Tear works & unlock Overrides, things become easier. However, I hate the bears from the DLC, those can go straight to hell.
Ghost of Tsushima: Same thing with HZD re: combat. I also know a LOT about the history of Japan and I enjoyed the amount of actual historical research they did re: the Mongol invasions, to the point that I grabbed my old history textbook to look up information about it; it was fun from a big uber-nerd perspective that way.
Dishonored Trilogy: Same thing re: HZD re: combat (in fact this game HEAVILY disincentivizes you from doing combat at all). Same thing but even moreso as Control when it comes to exploration opening up/changing as you unlocked new powers.
Hades: Like how the game "teaches" you and iterates on you learning how it works without feeling like its punishing you, even though you're dying all the time; writing is also smart, funny, unique, but also contains extra references/jokes/etc for people who know classical Greek mythology/literature/theater (see also the "fun from an uber-nerd perspective")
You may like Fenyx Rising. It's an open-world action RPG much like Breath of the Wild but with Greek mythology stuffed into it instead. Lots of exploration, puzzles generally come with lore tidbits courtesy of narrator Prometheus talking to Zeus (the story is framed as one he's currently telling to Zeus), and the writing isn't half bad by most standards.
You may like Fenyx Rising. It's an open-world action RPG much like Breath of the Wild but with Greek mythology stuffed into it instead. Lots of exploration, puzzles generally come with lore tidbits courtesy of narrator Prometheus talking to Zeus (the story is framed as one he's currently telling to Zeus), and the writing isn't half bad by most standards.
The banter is something I really liked and enjoyed. But I know others found it a bit much or bordering on cringe.
I'd really recommend Fenyx as well, I didn't want to stop playing it for a while and finished it much faster than I usually finish games. It's a very good open-world game.
+1
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KalnaurI See Rain . . .Centralia, WARegistered Userregular
Could you give a short (maybe one or two sentences max) explanations of what you enjoyed in those games? It'd help with suggestions. I get that they can all have the elements you enjoy, but implementation is also important. Like, Horizon has a lot of combat, so I want to make sure that it was either engaging or ignorable enough that it wasn't a big deal; that kind of thing will help a lot in suggesting other games.
Control: Liked reading all the little ephemera like office memos; really enjoyed how exploration opened up/changed as you unlocked new powers. The brutalist architecture is very nostalgic & even almost soothing bc I grew up in the Washington DC area.
FFVII Remake: Nostalgia but with a smart twist that made me think about the original narrative differently. Really filled out the world and made it feel more "real."
Horizon Zero Dawn: Regarding the combat, liked that most of the time, you engaged with combat on your own terms, eg, in very few situations (mostly in the storyline) did you get jumped unexpectedly, so you could set up traps, pick off weak units with headshots, & otherwise turn the situation to your advantage. Once you understand how Tear works & unlock Overrides, things become easier. However, I hate the bears from the DLC, those can go straight to hell.
Ghost of Tsushima: Same thing with HZD re: combat. I also know a LOT about the history of Japan and I enjoyed the amount of actual historical research they did re: the Mongol invasions, to the point that I grabbed my old history textbook to look up information about it; it was fun from a big uber-nerd perspective that way.
Dishonored Trilogy: Same thing re: HZD re: combat (in fact this game HEAVILY disincentivizes you from doing combat at all). Same thing but even moreso as Control when it comes to exploration opening up/changing as you unlocked new powers.
Hades: Like how the game "teaches" you and iterates on you learning how it works without feeling like its punishing you, even though you're dying all the time; writing is also smart, funny, unique, but also contains extra references/jokes/etc for people who know classical Greek mythology/literature/theater (see also the "fun from an uber-nerd perspective")
So, some suggestions, first, open world games:
Assassin's Creed Origins (and onward, I'd wager): the specific change in the way eagle vision works means that the more points you "sync", the more your bird-drone can see in a wider area. The method is to hover the bird, tag all the enemies in an area, and then use those positions to find places to take enemies out. As the game progresses and you buy access to things like poison darts, you can take entire areas of bad guys out with patience and a well placed darted enemy, because a poisoned enemy becomes a dead enemy, and a dead enemy becomes . . . a poison trap. Which someone will inspect, and poison themselves, and it can go for a while. The combat is also pretty solid if you want to engage with it, but there's lots of stealth opportunities, and then you can get on with exploration and engaging the quests and areas at your leisure. Last note on this one: mounted combat is overpowered against hyenas, as well as some other animals, use liberally.
Immortals: Fenyx Rising: Ubisoft open world meets the openess of Breath of the Wild. The one aspect that may either drive you away or engage you is that all the usual Ubi-widgets are scattered across the map, but you have to enter a "far sight" mode and tag them for them to show up on the map. The game has a story difficulty mode that makes combat literally trivial, so it comes down to tricks and puzzles and story, which are generally intertwined. As you buy new abilities some puzzles can be made much easier, as an example you can eventually make a stone copy of yourself which is used as a decoy, but also to weight down switches. One particular lift ability allows you to lift heavy objects which makes certain block sliding optional. And so it goes. I found a lot of the game is using the powers as they level up to interact with the huge world. Also, the game is a more humorous take on Greek myth, with Prometheus telling your tale while Zeus gives his two cents without asking if he should.
Prey: in the same way as other immersive sims provide plenty to skim and read and avenues to combat that are interesting (or encouraging you not to engage in combat), this is another of those games. Saying really too much more might ruin it, but this is along the lines of the Deus Ex/Dishonored style of game, and I heartily suggest it.
Which, also, the new Deus Ex games may also be a thing you like. From what I'm reading of what you don't seem to like, you don't seem to like roadblock hard combat, but also not "only one way" combat either.
I'm sure I could come up with more, but my brain isn't braining today, so as that list but shorter: Assassin's Creed Origins (and the other two after), Immortals Fenyx Rising, Prey, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
I make art things! deviantART:Kalnaur ::: Origin: Kalnaur ::: UPlay: Kalnaur
My ADHD brain is demanding variety and a new game to play. Help me pick something cool. I trust humans more than I trust corporate robots who only want my money.
Games I have recently enjoyed:
Control
FFVII Remake
Horizon Zero Dawn
Ghost of Tsushima
Dishonored Trilogy (I think I liked 2 the best in terms of gameplay; DotO best in terms of writing)
Hades
Biggest things for me in games is Exploration, Lore, and Story. It's not that I don't like puzzles and combat, exactly; it's that if puzzles and combat get in the way of Exploration, Lore, and Story, I start to get annoyed.
Great examples:
I stopped playing Hades recently because I could NOT get the last few conversations with Achillies and Patroclus to trigger, and I'd mostly run out of story/lore/dialogue with everyone else (except Thanatos and Hypnos, but that one is well known to be THE very last thing that unlocks and I wasn't even gonna try).
I got very frustrated with Control until Remedy implemented the "make yourself invincible" accessibility options because I just wanted to hang out and enjoy Brutalist architecture and read office memos but people kept SHOOTING AT ME and/or EXPLODING and it was Very Annoying.
I stopped playing Grim Fandango because some of the puzzles got SO obtuse that even reading a guide I couldn't quite figure out how to get past them, and I gave up.
I am totally fine with older school games; I played Morrowind for the first time in like 2014 and was blown away anyway.
Some stuff I own in my backlog (that I got as gifts or in bundles or whatever) and have been considering:
Sunless Sea: I don't normally care for roguelikes at all, but Hades showed me that they can be fun, and I love the Fallen London universe and have been playing FL itself since 2009. Considering giving it a shot? Might give up early on if I die too much.
Battletech: My friend keeps singing the praises of the writing in this game, but I know very little about it besides "mechs?"
Thief 2: I don't own Thief 1 for some reason? Basically "you liked Dishonored, you should play this!"
Thoughts? Other suggestions? Idefk? There are so many GAMES out there, guys. So many.
Sunless Sea can be a lot of fun if you ignore the trap of trying to treat it like a trading/merchant game just because you have a ship with a cargo hold. The game requires you to take longer and riskier voyages to stay solvent even early on which trips up people trying to do quick cargo runs.
You also can ignore a lot of the combat going with a high Veils stat. At some point, zee monsters basically can't see you unless you fire at them even though you are in a very loud and big boat.
That said, even if you do bounce off it you should know that Sunless Skies plays very differently. It trades some of the RPGness of Seas for a more accessible system (though there is supposed to be a big update coming that got postponed by the pandemic). I'll confess I haven't made as much headway through Skies as I did Seas though as the final area available is rough and I can't hide behind RPG cheese as I did in Seas.
I second Skies, but aren't all the Sunless Skies players holding their breath for the Sovereign Update that is going to heavily rework the game?
In theory, yes. But the pandemic has made when that update will happen questionable. It's also supposed to be compatible with existing legacies though you might need to have a new captain take the reins to see all the changes.
I made it through freezing temperatures with nary a hiccup in power or internet and today because of a brief thunderstorm power has gone down at least three times and the internet is now offline.
The stimmy checks, tax refund and the next two to three weeks of 50-60 hours should go pretty far to finally putting me in a real place to live. (Or at least as real as remaining in Texas allows...)
Speaking of games with story... @CorriganX just gifted me this and this looks neat af! I'll be installing this and checking it out this weekend. Thanks so much!
Posts
https://defector.com/yes-you-can-build-a-curling-simulator-in-the-comfort-of-your-own-home/
gamertag:Maguano71
Switch:SW-8428-8279-1687
That's not true... THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!
Switch FC: SW-7588-7027-0113, Steam/PSN: Halfazedninja
Twitch: KoopahTroopah - Steam: Koopah
I should really try that VR curling game Mugsley gifted me with some time...
The Stellaris bundle on Humble looks like an awesome deal, so between that and the charity it's supporting, I'll probably go for the game plus DLCs. But I'm dreading adding another big time sink to my backlog.
Maybe the galactic 4X setting won't get its hooks in me quite as deep as Europa Universalis, where it was always fun to eff up the history books and make Bender learn a bunch of new kings.
Anyway, the next issue of White Dwarf (number 462) will feature a Steam code inside that will unlock 12 Warhammer games on Steam:
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Games from Warhammer 40,000 (set in the far future, humanity has transformed into a brutal regime after countless millennia of nonstop war, the universe is filled with a number of alien races and they are all hostile, Hell exists and we use it to travel faster than light in 10,000 year old spaceships the size of small moons):
Space Marine
A very solid third person action game where you brutally slaughter like a million Orks.
Dawn of War
A solid RTS set in the Warhammer 40k universe, also the last good Dawn of War game in the series (hiyooooooo)
Adeptus Titanicus: Dominus
Turn based tactical/strategy RPG featuring giant stompy Titans (basically Mechs on steroids). Currently Early Access, but it's looking really good so far and if you like GIANT STOMPY ROBOTS you will probably dig it. This is set around 10,000 years before the current Warhammer 40k timeline, during an event known as the Horus Heresy, where the Imperium of Man was torn apart by a colossal civil war that is essentially 90% of the reason why things are so fucked in the current 40k universe
Sanctus Reach
Grid based strategy featuring the worst chapter in the entire franchise - the Space Wolves (don't @ me)
Space Wolf
Metal Gear AC!D but you're a dumb Space Wolf instead of a character from an actually good chapter
Warhammer 40,000: Armageddon – Da Orks
A standalone expansion for Warhammer 40,000 Armageddon, which is a 2D hex based strategy game. Think Panzer General but with 8 foot tall genetically modified supersoldiers and brutally stupid Orks who build tanks out of scrap metal.
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Games from Warhammer Fantasy/Age of Sigmar (Humans, elves, dwarves, orks, demons, vampires, ratmen, undead, lizardpeople, ghosts, monsters, and sentient trees all desperately battle it out on a planet that is about to be literally torn apart by the forces of chaos)
Vermintide 2
What if Left 4 Dead had ratmen instead of zombies, as well as a much larger focus on melee. A lot of fun in co-op, if you buy this and I don't think you're an asshole I'll totally play it with you.
Total War: Warhammer
A hybrid strategy game (turn based but with realtime battles) set in the Warhammer Fantasy world
Warhammer Underworlds Online
A videogame adaptation of the Warhammer Underworlds tabletop board game, which mixes miniatures with cards. This game is actually set in the Age of Sigmar timeline, which comes after The End Times of Warhammer Fantasy (after the planet blew up and shards of it ended up as realms across different dimensions... it's a long story)
Warhammer Quest
Warhammer Quest II: The End Times
Turn based dungeon crawling
Talisman
Some weird card game or something, I don't even know
Anyway, White Dwarf costs $9 in the states, and it's a pretty insane deal for the amount of games you're getting, even if you just use the code and throw the magazine away. If you've ever been curious about Warhammer videogames, the 12 they're giving away is a pretty good spread of genres, with some really solid games included. If you've ever been curious about the actual tabletop game, than you'll also get an issue of a magazine that deals with it exclusively. It should be available at Warhammer stores, bookstores, and places where magazines get sold on Friday the 19th.
But you fine folk can tell I'm drunk/having a shitty time, mostly cause I'm shitty to y'all.
But that don't stop ya from giftin
Thanks to @Questor for georifters! Thanks @Malakaius for lewdy armor in Conan (we've been having fun on his hosted island for the island dlc, new update just dropped)! Thanks @chuck steak for vr table tennis!
Also bought myself a game I've had my eye on for awhile cause folks can't figure out what would be on my wishlist.
That takes me back... was a regular White Dwarf reader once. Back in like the early '90s. Damn, I feel old
Steam | XBL
Steam | XBL
Games I have recently enjoyed:
Biggest things for me in games is Exploration, Lore, and Story. It's not that I don't like puzzles and combat, exactly; it's that if puzzles and combat get in the way of Exploration, Lore, and Story, I start to get annoyed.
Great examples:
I am totally fine with older school games; I played Morrowind for the first time in like 2014 and was blown away anyway.
Some stuff I own in my backlog (that I got as gifts or in bundles or whatever) and have been considering:
Thoughts? Other suggestions? Idefk? There are so many GAMES out there, guys. So many.
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
Binding of Isaac dungeon structure (floors with certain types of rooms, a shop and upgrade on every floor)
With 3D Zelda esque combat, including BotW limited weapon durability.
And themed around startup culture. You are an intern at F`zzle who instead of PR have to get rid of the monster attacks.
I am probably halfway and been having a good time.
It's a roguelite Metroidvania with a lot of exploration, and an interesting and creepy story, with multiple endings. It's also 100% hand-drawn and beautiful. I've had a total blast playing it.
Sounds like you want Disco Elysium.
One Shot has solid story and decent exploration.
Crying Sun is pretty cool with good story and lore. It's got a progress similar to FLT and Void Bastards, so not sure how that ticks the explore box.
Also, really solid story and lore in Pyre. Not so much on the exploration.
Steam ID: Good Life
I wouldn't have recommended BATTLTECH necessarily based on the games you listed as recently enjoyed. There is a star system to explore I guess technically, but the planets are essentially the same and mostly exist to offer up new missions and different store contents. The biomes change, but there are only so many and of you play the whole campaign or career you will see them all well before the halfway mark. Exploration and lore are not the game's strengths. Story is fine to good, but is mostly a framework for moving your mercenary company management forward into more mech battles.
But BATTLETECH is amazing at what it does (lovingly recreate the board game feel of the original tabletop mech shootin' boardgame and wrap it in dopamine delivery drivers of mech upgrades and mech company management milestones.) If you are curious what it's like or want a leg up on the game's poor tutorial, I have a wordy guide linked in my sig that's a walkthrough of the first few hours of the game.
EDIT: Actually, you know what you might enjoy if you don't mind older games? STALKER! Fantastic exploration, world building and atmosphere.
Steam profile.
Getting started with BATTLETECH: Part 1 / Part 2
Steam | XBL
Sticking with metrovinnyas i'm gonna say Axiom Verge.
It is a game that is incredibly good at making one feel like a tiny ant walking around inside the skeletons of gigantic unknowable nightmares.
But if it's exploration, lore, and story being looked for I dunno if one can do much better than Heaven's Vault. No combat, and the puzzles aren't really puzzles at all except in the sense that archaeology is one big puzzle with layers of interpretation needed to find out a plausible answer.
Kristen Arno's VA is pretty damn good at pulling off the epic speech though.
Could you give a short (maybe one or two sentences max) explanations of what you enjoyed in those games? It'd help with suggestions. I get that they can all have the elements you enjoy, but implementation is also important. Like, Horizon has a lot of combat, so I want to make sure that it was either engaging or ignorable enough that it wasn't a big deal; that kind of thing will help a lot in suggesting other games.
Sunless Sea can be a lot of fun if you ignore the trap of trying to treat it like a trading/merchant game just because you have a ship with a cargo hold. The game requires you to take longer and riskier voyages to stay solvent even early on which trips up people trying to do quick cargo runs.
You also can ignore a lot of the combat going with a high Veils stat. At some point, zee monsters basically can't see you unless you fire at them even though you are in a very loud and big boat.
That said, even if you do bounce off it you should know that Sunless Skies plays very differently. It trades some of the RPGness of Seas for a more accessible system (though there is supposed to be a big update coming that got postponed by the pandemic). I'll confess I haven't made as much headway through Skies as I did Seas though as the final area available is rough and I can't hide behind RPG cheese as I did in Seas.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
I second Skies, but aren't all the Sunless Skies players holding their breath for the Sovereign Update that is going to heavily rework the game?
https://podcast.tidalwavegames.com/
The banter is something I really liked and enjoyed. But I know others found it a bit much or bordering on cringe.
I'd really recommend Fenyx as well, I didn't want to stop playing it for a while and finished it much faster than I usually finish games. It's a very good open-world game.
So, some suggestions, first, open world games:
Assassin's Creed Origins (and onward, I'd wager): the specific change in the way eagle vision works means that the more points you "sync", the more your bird-drone can see in a wider area. The method is to hover the bird, tag all the enemies in an area, and then use those positions to find places to take enemies out. As the game progresses and you buy access to things like poison darts, you can take entire areas of bad guys out with patience and a well placed darted enemy, because a poisoned enemy becomes a dead enemy, and a dead enemy becomes . . . a poison trap. Which someone will inspect, and poison themselves, and it can go for a while. The combat is also pretty solid if you want to engage with it, but there's lots of stealth opportunities, and then you can get on with exploration and engaging the quests and areas at your leisure. Last note on this one: mounted combat is overpowered against hyenas, as well as some other animals, use liberally.
Immortals: Fenyx Rising: Ubisoft open world meets the openess of Breath of the Wild. The one aspect that may either drive you away or engage you is that all the usual Ubi-widgets are scattered across the map, but you have to enter a "far sight" mode and tag them for them to show up on the map. The game has a story difficulty mode that makes combat literally trivial, so it comes down to tricks and puzzles and story, which are generally intertwined. As you buy new abilities some puzzles can be made much easier, as an example you can eventually make a stone copy of yourself which is used as a decoy, but also to weight down switches. One particular lift ability allows you to lift heavy objects which makes certain block sliding optional. And so it goes. I found a lot of the game is using the powers as they level up to interact with the huge world. Also, the game is a more humorous take on Greek myth, with Prometheus telling your tale while Zeus gives his two cents without asking if he should.
Prey: in the same way as other immersive sims provide plenty to skim and read and avenues to combat that are interesting (or encouraging you not to engage in combat), this is another of those games. Saying really too much more might ruin it, but this is along the lines of the Deus Ex/Dishonored style of game, and I heartily suggest it.
Which, also, the new Deus Ex games may also be a thing you like. From what I'm reading of what you don't seem to like, you don't seem to like roadblock hard combat, but also not "only one way" combat either.
I'm sure I could come up with more, but my brain isn't braining today, so as that list but shorter: Assassin's Creed Origins (and the other two after), Immortals Fenyx Rising, Prey, and Deus Ex: Human Revolution.
How did we all forget Prey?
In theory, yes. But the pandemic has made when that update will happen questionable. It's also supposed to be compatible with existing legacies though you might need to have a new captain take the reins to see all the changes.
Steam Profile
3DS: 3454-0268-5595 Battle.net: SteelAngel#1772
The stimmy checks, tax refund and the next two to three weeks of 50-60 hours should go pretty far to finally putting me in a real place to live. (Or at least as real as remaining in Texas allows...)
Neuromod removal process. Sorry.
Who remembers what they ate weeks ago?
3DS: 0473-8507-2652
Switch: SW-5185-4991-5118
PSN: AbEntropy
Speaking of games with story... @CorriganX just gifted me this and this looks neat af! I'll be installing this and checking it out this weekend. Thanks so much!
This is a genre that I am happy to see return.
Petroglyph are working on Earthbreakers which looks even more C&C Renegade.
Bravely Default / 3DS Friend Code = 3394-3571-1609
You think that's bad? One time I forgot about Dre.
I dunno, that sounds like a bunch of gibberish to me.