cross-posted from: https://lemmy.today/post/57413346
I played Nine Sols recently and it had a transformative effect on my gaming experience. I've found myself no longer getting mad at fairly structured games and deeply enjoying the personal refinement of my skill set in pursuit of a goal. Suddenly this shift in perspective has allowed me to see difficulty in a new light and truly savor the victory that comes after significant effort. With this new perspective, I decided to try the game that had made me hesitate the most with its reputation for difficulty: Sekiro
Its been truly eye opening to realize that my nervousness has only kept me from a good time. Or maybe I just wasn't ready for it...
Following that trend, I started Celeste for the first time even though I never play pure platformers, and it has blown my socks off. Do I suck? You bet your ass I do. But I know it's from a lack of detailed platforming, and developing that skill has been very fun and satisfying.
Now, I'd love to hear from others. What games made you regret waiting so long to try them?
126 Comments
B0NK3RS@lazysoci.al · 39 pts · 5d
Recently it was Balatro that I played for the first time 2 months ago.
Speculater@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 5d
I love that game because I'll step away for months, come back, play another deck and it's a whole new problem.
WoodYouLookAtThat@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 5d
Few things match the rush of Balatro switching to scientific notation
the16bitgamer@programming.dev · 2 pts · 4d
The SGDQ run of Balatro is amazing if you wanna see how crazy it can get.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A7Go7IXlYLg&pp=ygUMU2dkYyBiYWxhdHJv
DireTech@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 1d
That was amazing. Can’t believe how far people can take the game.
rounding_error@lemmy.today · 32 pts · 5d
Baldurs Gate 3. Seemed expensive, complicated, and not my type of game at the time.
Oh, how wrong I was.
Nima@leminal.space · 6 pts · 5d
it's possibly my favorite game of all time. i wasn't expecting that. I'm an elder scrolls girlie at heart.
mintiefresh@piefed.ca · 3 pts · 5d
It's sitting in my library collecting dust. Someone had bought it for me as a birthday gift.... I should get to it!
swooper@lemmy.world · 27 pts · 5d
Dark souls. I tried it a few times and dismissed. I returned to DS2 when DS3, at the request of a fanboi friend.
Accepting defeat, dusting myself off and surpassing all odds changed my mentality and patience with gaming forever.
Fuck me big bad boss? No, fuck you
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 5d
This happened to me. It was Sekiro that was the one that finally sank it's teeth into me. Still my favorite video game of all time.
psyq@piefed.social · 1 pts · 5d
Pretty much the same, I went DS2, then DS1R, then DS2:SotFS and then DS3. I don't normally enjoy replaying games but SotFS was fine because enough had changed.
Still can't get into Sekiro or Elden Ring, but I did finish Nioh and I'm sure Nioh 3 will be nice in a year or so when all the expansions have dropped.
Cethin@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 4d
I highly recommend spending some time with Sekiro. It is arguably their best game. It learns most of the lessons from the Souls series, innovates on that, but also doesn't lose anything, in my opinion.
Elden Ring is good, but I honestly think it's a worse experience than the older games. Yeah, the combat has been perfected, but that's a relatively minor part of the gameplay, all things considered. DS1 has the perfect world to explore, with corridors that are crafted to perfection. It's open enough to feel like you're choosing where to explore while being closed enough to have good encounters. Elden Ring is so open that it loses a lot of control, which essentially means the only encounters that matter are in the dungeons. Those are a small fraction of the game, so it feels like a lot of time and effort spent to make something that's experientially worse than the simpler older style. It's still a master class in open world design, but I feel the game would be stronger if they focused on the classic design.
psyq@piefed.social · 2 pts · 4d
I might go back to Sekiro but for some reason the first few bosses pissed me off so much more than anything I encountered in DS or Nioh, and I'm not good at parrying. It's like trying to go back to Mega Man on NES, I just can't, two bosses in and I'm twisting the controller unil it creaks :)
I did try Sekiro three times in total so far so it could still work. It took a while for DS to click, too. Demon's Souls lost me at Flamelurker, though, not doing that again (tried a new playthrough from scratch at least five times over the years).
Cethin@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 4d
It was frustrating to start. I agree. It requires such a different skill set than the Souls games but it feels like you should be good at it already, but you won't be.
One key to the game is in a quote a character says fairly early on: "Hesitation is defeat." The way to play is to put constant pressure on the enemy. In the Souls games you're encouraged to back off and take time to recover when you need to. In Sekiro, you need to keep the pressure up to break their posture. If you back off then they recover and progress is reset. It's tough, but it's one of the best combat games once it clicks. It's why almost every game since has added a posture bar, but they don't go all the way to the logical end that Sekiro did. Even ER took the posture mechanic, but watered it down.
swooper@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 5d
Funny, I dropped Seiko 3/4 of the way through. Elden ring has been on the wishlist, never bought it.
I guess it’s hard to beat the best, all the co-op and troll-invade glory that was DS.
nullspace@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 5d
Elden Ring is like getting the gameplay of Dark Souls, but all encounters are on your own terms as the hard progression walls you get in linear dungeons don't apply to most of the game. I wouldn't call it easier, but I would describe it as more accessible.
Cethin@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 4d
They definitely turned up the dial on combat challenges for bosses, but I agree, it's more accessible. There are so many ways to trivialize the combats, and you can even skip a lot of the bosses. It's so much easier than ever before to come back later with a significant power increase and easily defeat any boss.
Probably the thing that helps accessibility the most though is making it clear there are other paths, and you can come back to a boss later. That was always the intention of the Souls games, but people often slam their head against a wall until it breaks, and they think the games are (too) hard. The tools were always there to make the game easier, but a lot of people didn't take advantage of them in the older games. ER makes the alternatives so much more obvious.
carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 22 pts · 5d
undertale and deltarune. i kinda always dismissed those games as youtuber fandom shit, if that makes sense… stuff made to appeal to fandoms who love to pull nonsense out of their asses to make the games deeper than they really are. game theory bait. and i’ve heard so many horrors about the utdr fandom, it made me want to steer clear of the games. and i figured, since i already got spoiled a ton of stuff from undertale through cultural osmosis, what would be the point of playing it?
but they still interested me somewhat, since i heard from more people that they were actually really good… and i got spoiled one more thing i didn’t know, and i figured if i want to play these games someday, i have to do it now so my enjoyment of them isn’t ruined more by just existing on the internet
so i did! i played undertale twice in a row (i didn’t do everything needed to get the pacifist ending the first time), and the first 2 chapters of deltarune right after that (only those were released then). and oh my, i’m glad i did because these are some of my favourite games now. tho i still think I would’ve enjoyed undertale so much more if i hadn’t been spoiled a bunch about it…
don’t judge games by their fandoms. things are often popular for a reason, and fans of something often lack the creative experience of the original creators (which is not to say that there isn’t good utdr fan content, there is, a ton! but there’s also a lot of crap)
i still dislike the gaster theorists tho
Hadriscus@jlai.lu · 3 pts · 5d
I tried starting Undertale but it doesn't work well (or at all I can't remember) with a controller, maybe I should try using good ol AntiMicroX to translate controller inputs to mouse and keyboard. The first few images left me with an impression of very low effort so with that and the hardware issue I didn't push further. You're saying I should ? 😁
carotte@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 3 pts · 5d
yea undertale’s graphics are pretty bad lol, in many cases literally on purpose! thankfully deltarune (especially the later chapters) looks much better. but imo, where the game really shines is its characters and battles, they’re really fun! that’s where you’ll feel the effort that went into the game. the music too is excellent imo
for the controller, if it’s not a problem you can just play with the keyboard, it works very well.
Hadriscus@jlai.lu · 2 pts · 5d
Cheers, I'll give it another go ! yea keyboard should be fine I'll make the effort heh
TabbsTheBat@pawb.social · 21 pts · 5d
Undertale/deltarune. I played a demo for one of them (I forget which) and I found it too handholdy with not enough happening. Of course the games get a lot more fun after the tutorial section, but for me at the time it just felt too dragged out, so I didn't properly play them until a few years later
catalyst@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 5d
I’m in the middle of my first Undertale play through right now. I’ll say some of the dialogue and situations that come up are just really funny and that has made it worth it to me so far.
SCmSTR@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 21 pts · 5d
Pacific Drive
It was hitting my suggested sections for almost two years, all my game searches, tags, and algorithms. I brushed it off as some wandery nothing indie game.
It came out in 2024, but then this year 2026 a few months ago, I finally decided to give it a ahot and it was NOTHING like I thought it was. Also, a lot more blatantly queer first and deeply queercoded, which is an extremely refreshing change.
I'd been playing games like snowrunner and expeditions, and waiting for the steam frame to come out to play a bunch of vr games, so a cozy horror survival driving game that feels kinda like gta meets raft meets forza or snowrunner or something was not in my expectations.
It's technically a roguelite extraction survival crafting story adventure rpg, kind of. Horror-lite, fantastic fresh soundtrack, based in an alternate timeline 1990s USA Washington State Olympic peninsula. It's done quite well and I don't want to finish it, though I'm close. It has some mods through Nexus mods, but most are primarily to make things easier balance-wise. No workshop support, doesn't run great on steam deck but does run okay if you turn the graphics down all the way. Has probably the best dualsense controller integration I've played in a game, though, I generally don't play many that have native support for dualsense features because they all look boring to me.
Anyway, if you like Washington State, driving, crafting, music, and you're gay, give it a try. It's only single player, though, and expect to put 40-60 hours in it. I've got about 90 so far without the expansion and am avoiding finishing it because I like it. Most of the bad reviews are from two camps: homophobes and people who this niche game doesn't quite fit. But if what I've described to you sounds attractive, seriously give it a try. It goes on sale for about ten bucks USD. You don't need any dlc, there are a few skin packs that give you infinite usage uniques, the soundtrack, and an actual expansion that seems like a totally separate gamemode that I plan on playing after I beat the story.
I do strongly suggest using a dualsense controller if you have one.
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net · 0 pts · 5d
Pacific Drive was so goood
Sackett@thelemmy.club · 20 pts · 5d
I just made it to Act 2 of Baldurs Gate 3. I'm obsessed.
Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 5d
I've just made it to the city! I'm at about 250 hours so far, but TBF I am a very slow gamer. Yeah, it just keeps getting better and better as you go.
I actually feel like I might be missing out on a lot, because I pretty much stick with the same party. I could see myself finishing and wanting to start a completely new playthrough with different companions and making different choices.
Nima@leminal.space · 3 pts · 5d
i have a couple playthroughs and they have all been different. i have hundreds of hours and I still keep finding new things that I had no idea were there.
its kind of nice to know there's other things I might find out in more playthroughs to come.
LettyWhiterock@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 5d
I gotta be honest I couldn't get very far in cause the game was just too difficult. And I'm not a stranger to crpgs. I dunno if it's just the d&d system or what. And the more people I knew who were getting into it and talking about how some later sections felt almost impossible, it just killed my interest entirely. Like is there something I'm missing or is it just that punishing and that's what people like about it?
Sackett@thelemmy.club · 1 pts · 5d
I started and stopped playing it a couple of times before I really got hooked. What worked for me was watching the YouTube channel Many a True Nerd start his playthrough. Watching somebody else use the controls and navigate the UI and stuff really helped me get over the "fire hose of information" you're bombarded with at the start. But that's just me.
grranibal@lemmy.zip · 17 pts · 5d
Bloodborne
For years I had it in my library, I would restart it every couple of months and give before the first boss. Then one day I decided “fuck it, I’ll do it”. After 2 miserable weeks I finally got to Vicar Amelia and got hooked like I had never been
dvlsg@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 5d
Bloodborne was my first souls game. I sucked, as expected, and ran out of vials and bullets while fighting the blood starved beast, realized I'd have to farm before trying again, and just quit.
Picked up Dark Souls 3 on a sale and loved it, ended up going back to Bloodborne and loving it too. I do still think estus is a way better system than vials though.
scutiger@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 4d
Farming vials was not a fun mechanic, IMO. It's also part of what made Demon's Souls tedious at times, running out of healing and having to run back to your favorite farming route just to get more. It kills the flow of the game and is frustrating when you're just trying to get past a hard boss.
I've played through most of the major Soulslikes out there, but have bounced off Bloodborne several times.
grranibal@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 4d
Yes exactly! That was very annoying, but on the flip side I ended up giting gud by not bothering using vials and just ramming through them foul beasts
Ilixtze@lemmy.ml · 16 pts · 5d
I just picked up titanfall and binding of isaac for peanuts in the last steam sale and I am having a ball!
Melonpoly@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4d
Does it still require an EA login?
the16bitgamer@programming.dev · 1 pts · 4d
Yup titan fall and titan fall 2 requires EA App
psx_crab@lemmy.zip · 16 pts · 5d
Not recently but Sleeping Dog. Always looks to me as cheap gta clone but wow this is the hk police drama that the game industry lack. The driving is more arcade-y which is fun.
ggtdbz@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 4d
I never finished it but I jump into it every five or so years. It still gives me a bit of that open world magic that I used to feel. The world is just full enough of stuff to do without feeling like cheap padding, and the atmosphere is really nice. It just makes me feel like how I want these games to make me feel. The graphics and physics are dated but they are all I need for this atmosphere.
I think like a lot of people I wasn’t as enthused about the uniformed police missions. Especially because of the setting. The protests in Beirut and in HK had a lot of overlap so there was a lot of “tried and tested” safety measures we were getting directly from what was happening there. It’s not quite copaganda so it’s fine
Maybe I should make an effort to finish it already. I can’t keep relearning the combat every few years.
iamthetot@piefed.ca · 2 pts · 5d
It's the spiritual successor to the True Crime series, which is like anti GTA lol.
snooggums@piefed.world · 1 pts · 5d
The hand to hand combat against groups of enemies is fun as hell!
lonefighter@sh.itjust.works · 14 pts · 5d
Tainted Grail: Fall of Avalon. It was on my wishlist for awhile, but some of the negative reviews had me thinking it wasn't something I would enjoy. Then I kept seeing comments that it was a good game to play if you like Skyrim. I disagree with that, it's not so much Skyrim vibes than as if Oblivion and Elden Ring had a baby that was into weird creepy shit and obsessed with the Knights of the Round table.
It's cool AF and I was absolutely obsessed from the very beginning. I am glad I waited a bit to play it because there's 3rd person mode now and I don't think it initially shipped with 3rd person mode. I get insanely sick playing a lot of 1st person games. Some games I'm fine with and other games I'm puking my guts out and going to bed within 15 minutes of booting up the game, so having 3rd person mode (even if it's officially unsupported and a little glitchy) means I can play for hours and actually enjoy the game.
jacksilver@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 5d
Just started playing this and blown away by it. Combat feels better than skyrim, and while it nerfs my "stealth Archer" approach it makes you actually utilize multiple mechanics while fighting.
If you havent tried it, I would suggest "Dread Delusion". It's ps1 like graphics, and definitely has parred down mechanics, but the world building, exploration, missions, and story are really enjoyable.
lonefighter@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 5d
I'll be honest, I'm playing on story mode because I hate the slog of combat being so insanely difficult in most video games and I hate having to grind to level up in early games. As my one coworker so excellently put it, "if I want to punish myself I'll pick up overtime". I'm very sad that I can't sneak around shooting everyone in the back like in Skyrim but I am enjoying the mechanics of Tainted Grail and I love the world and the lore and the whole idea of the Wyrdness and the fact that nighttime and daytime are actually different is delightful.
I'll have to look at Dread Delusion, I've never heard of it.
jacksilver@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 5d
No shame in story mode, the combat is definitely harder than skyrim. That being said, I do like that since there isn't level scaling, combat difficulty lets me know if I should actually be picking a fight (like finding an orge in early game and realizing I can barely damage it).
Completely agree on the lore and wyrdness too. It's been a bit refreshing to play something that, while pulling from other fantasy, seems to really build and flesh out its own lore.
Doc_Crankenstein@slrpnk.net · 14 pts · 5d
Stellar Blade. Only just played it a few months ago.
I thought it was just a gooner slop imitation game but a friend recommended it and let me use his steam family share to play it. It's actually a legitimate action game that's pretty damn fun with a good story too. I'm actually excited for the sequel.
mintiefresh@piefed.ca · 2 pts · 5d
I also had a blast playing this game. Combat was really fun for me and I just generally enjoyed the mood and vibe of the game.
ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net · 13 pts · 5d
Star Wars: Dark Forces (1995).
I had it growing up as a kid, but could never beat the third level so I shelved it and forgot about it, until a few days ago when I decided to try it with The Force Engine which adds mouselook and some quality of life features.
As an adult, I finally was able to figure out that 3rd level, and appreciate the cool setup for the missions (in a way, it's kinda like Andor).
Was absolutely blown away by how much I enjoyed the combat and level design, had an absolute blast from start to finish, and now consider it one of my favorites.
Akasazh@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 5d
That must be the longest sleep in this thread. And I'm curious to now.
Zahille7@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 5d
It's basically Doom: Star Wars Edition
ProdigalFrog@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 5d
I actually played the OG Doom right before Dark Forces (it was what reminded it me to try it), and while the first few levels of Doom are fun enough to the point where I beat the first episode, I very quickly lost interest in episode 2, as the level design begins to get really maze-like and sprawling, and the monster closets get old. Episode one gave me all the Doom I needed, personally.
While Dark Forces is definitely Doom-like, it added quite a lot to the experience over Doom that drastically helped to keep my attention. The addition of a story with cutscenes to provide context for the missions, the specific objectives that needed to be completed, and the far less game-y level design was drastically more interesting to engage with. I just really liked the set-up of each mission being an infiltration, with sometimes requirements to then escape back to the extraction point.
I also noticed that none of the missions in Dark Forces are really that long, they kinda felt bite-sized, which kept any one mission from overstaying its welcome.
Overall it's just a much more fleshed out, more intriguing take on the doom formula.
Nima@leminal.space · 10 pts · 5d
Mass Effect Andromeda. It's fun as hell and I'm so glad I didn't listen to those who had nothing but bad things to say about it.
its unpolished, sure. but unpolished diamonds are still diamonds. the characters are wonderful, the planets are amazing, the combattttt oh my goodness. and some of the choices are quite interesting.
currently on my... 6th? 7th playthrough? and I love it so much I'm planning personal challenge runs for future plays. it's my favorite mass effect to reach for now when I have the mass effect itch.
Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 5d
What do you think about the story?
I really enjoyed the Mass Effect trilogy and would be interested if the game is cheap and runs well on a Steam Deck
Nima@leminal.space · 2 pts · 5d
i actually love it. and I love the races they add as well. the enemy is fairly generic, but what sci-fi villain isn't?
i love the trilogy as well, I just have some issues when they start inserting story regardless of if you're ready or not. so Andromeda is fairly good at not pushing you too far too fast. and its easy to go at your own pace.
which I love cause I love 100%ing all areas cause I'm a weirdo. and I love completion.
Dariusmiles2123@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 4d
Okay thanks for the reply!
Strider@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 5d
Breath of the wild actually.
I had been massively burned by empty and dull mission based open world games. Also I'm not the biggest Zelda fan, it's very hit or miss for me.
So I got in (very) late, at the switch release (owned wii-u too) and was massively enjoying the game. Everything there was something to see and to do.
I also hesitated on tears of the kingdom and yeah... It's not for me.
who@feddit.org · 4 pts · 5d
Some "open world" games merely tick the boxes of having a somewhat large area and the ability to traverse it. That alone turns out to be incredibly boring to many of us.
Give me a game world that's interesting and rewarding to explore. Unique encounters. Unmapped discoveries. Surprising characters. Varied environments. This aspect of an open world is one of the things that Skyrim did fairly well. I wish more game designers would run with the idea.
nullspace@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 5d
Tears is tragic in that it perfectly addresses criticisms of weapon durability with fusion. It allows you to combine dropped monster horns with your weapon to increase your damage and since those horns scale with the enemies it means combat is never regression in your weapon damage. The horns you get back make up for the weapons you burn through. Only, fusion also brings in the construction mechanic which completely mucks up the game loop. Fuse goes far beyond gluing some logs together to form a bridge, it completely dominates all aspects of the game.
There are other criticisms such as the underground area being way too big, being same size as the world map with only one biome instead of multiple sub-areas, but none of them are as cursed and double-edged as the fuse ability.
Strider@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 5d
Yeah, there was this one video which perfectly explained what I think about it in around an hour. But anyhow, the ass building interface and underworld mainly, yes. Both for multiple reasons. It isn't a bad game, but lacks in contrast to botw.
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world · 9 pts · 5d
Kingdom come: Deliverance.
I'm pretty far into my first playthrough. I had barely even heard of this game, but once I got past the initial frustration of realizing that I'm just a blacksmith's son, I'm having a blast!
I wasn't sure how a lack of fantasy (monsters/magic) would turn out, but I don't miss it at all.
BigBananaDealer@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 5d
i couldnt figure out the lockpicking system
Rhynoplaz@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 5d
It took me some getting used to. I'm a pro at the Fallout/Skyrim system, but this took some getting used to.
Besides that though, I've noticed that, like combat, it gets easier as you level it up. A low level trying to pick anything other than very easy is going to be REALLY shaky. But at higher levels, I have a lot more control even on hard locks.
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 9 pts · 5d
Several years ago now I played witcher 3. It was released in 2015. I enjoyed this game way more than I thought I would and couldn't believe I slept on it for 7 years or so before finally playing it
Ashtear@piefed.social · 3 pts · 5d
A friend tried to talk me to into playing this one for years before I finally went for it. I should have listened sooner!
tmyakal@infosec.pub · 1 pts · 5d
I got it shortly after it came out because everyone was saying how great it was, and I immediately bounced off of it. Every few years, I'll go back and try again hoping I can find what people loved about it, but it's just not my taste. I forced myself as far as Skellige one time, but only because I kept reminding myself, "If you get to a new area, you might get to play more Gwent."
graynk@discuss.tchncs.de · 1 pts · 4d
In case you slept on it: Thronebreaker is a great standalone Gwent-based RPG
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 5d
Nobody told me about Gwent when I started playing. I wish the standalone game was just that 🤣. I enjoyed the hell out of that game.
Too bad the games not your taste. The graphics, environments, the story, all really drew me in. The one DLC was in particular really good on the plot.
Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 5d
I've not got to it yet, but ppl here have told me it's still great in spite of its age. Just gotta finish baldur's gate and control, then it's next on my list.
cyberpunk007@lemmy.ca · 1 pts · 4d
Both those games I started and never finished 🤣
python@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 4d
I only recently played Portal 2 & 1 (in that order lol). Really enjoyed them, I totally see why they're considered a classic!
tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 4d
WoodYouLookAtThat@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 4d
Oh man, Portal's release (as well as the rest of the Orange Box) was incredible to experience
It's a special game that I'd recommend to just about everyone
PaulWrites@mastodon.social · 2 pts · 4d
@python @WoodYouLookAtThat This was a triumph. I’m making a note here, huge success.
MousePotatoDoesStuff@piefed.social · 7 pts · 5d
Doki Doki Literature Club
I didn't know it was free to play, so I ended up spoiling myself on the plot before finally playing it.
Still got caught off guard.
Katana314@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 5d
To me it’s a case study in good presentation value and cinematic timing. I had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen, and still when it did it was deeply affecting.
Harkens back to old Shakespeare methods; where you would have the core story of the play told to you ahead of time and it was still a thrill to watch.
rtxn@lemmy.world · 7 pts · 5d
I slept on Helldivers 2 for too long, now I don't think I'll ever play it. It's become obvious that Arrowhead is either unable or unwilling to maintain a game that focuses on the player experience, instead making it subservient to the vision of what they think the game should be. It's a costly lesson that Digital Extremes learned years ago. I also can't trust Sony not to steal access to the game from me.
I guess I'm actively sleeping on Voices Of The Void. I've played a little of 0.9n and it's exactly the kind of horror I like, but I want to wait for at least the Steam early access release.
snooggums@piefed.world · 1 pts · 5d
Having played HD2 since release I think the game has been focused on the player experience for at least the last half year if not longer. Yeah, they had some rough patches where they nerfed things to the point they became frustrating, but their last few big updates really did focus on changing things based on user feedback including a lot of QOL fixes (reloading!) and they changed up the overarching mission structure to break things up into more immersive objectives and subobjectives.
Can definitely understand not wanting to come back because of the history though.
Jankatarch@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 5d
Hollow knight.
I had a bunch of soulslike phases but hollow knight I couldn't get into because "there is not even dodging mechanic"
Then the mantis lords fight made the game kinda "click" and I did find "dash" ability too so it was fun.
Then it kept becoming more fun through the story. Pretty much only soulslike I got into the lore of.
ItsMeSpez@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 5d
This is me as well. I only actually got around to playing Hollow Knight about a year ago and it was amazing. I won't be waiting as long to play Silksong, that's for sure.
macho505@lemmy.world · 6 pts · 4d
GTA San Andreas. I still have a dent in my forehead from that case.
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de · 6 pts · 5d
RPGs.
I had my first encounters during the nineties (still the old 2D/2.5D ones), got confused and overwhelmed, so didn't consider them to be my thing.
Briefly trying out Gothic during the mid 00s, and instantly getting killed by some big wolf or bird without having the slightest idea what was going on or what I was supposed to do didn't help.
Fast forward 20 years to the early 2020s when I started gaming again after a 15 year pause, see everyone praising Elder Scrolls, grab Oblivion as it was on sale at GOG: Completely blown away and probably hooked for life.
Currently playing Morrowind, which will last me a while still, but I am excited to revisit tons of old and newer RPG games that turned out to be exactly my thing after gaining some experience and finally understanding how to play them.
Zahille7@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 5d
If you want even more Morrowind by the time you feel like you're winding down, get the Tamriel Rebuilt mod. It's like twice as much Morrowind per Morrowind; there's almost the entire rest of the province to explore (in the base game you only explore the giant island of Vvardenfell) including all the cities and towns scattered across the land, way more quests and even a new faction or two, new enemies and creatures, new weapons and armor... It's basically a Morrowind Fan's wet dream.
Multiplexer@discuss.tchncs.de · 2 pts · 5d
I already know of it and had it installed when getting into the game in the first place. Turned out, that even the base game with the expansions is so huge, I haven't even finished the main quest yet :-)
But I am looking forward to setting up the latest release of TR when I am finished with the main game and start over again on the mainland!
I read that it is designed to be best played from the ground up with a new character, my by now completely overskilled mage might be a bit to powerful ;-)
northernlights@lemmy.today · 5 pts · 5d
I have fell asleep playing Civilization a few times :) Just...one...more...turn.
nicpicname@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 4d
Persona 5 Royal. And with it the entire Persona series. This shit is amazing.
caut_R@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 5d
From a casual standpoint: Hidden Object games. There‘s not enough good ones (and lots of games tagged as them which really aren‘t) and I find them so immensly relaxing.
Examples: Hidden Folks, Hidden through Time, varying sorts of 100 hidden Cats
Basically „Where‘s Waldo“. Really just wish there were more of them.
chronicledmonocle@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 5d
Ori and the Blind Forest/Will of the Wisps: I picked up the first game in a Humble Bundle years ago and decided to play it randomly. Instantly became obsessed and then got the sequel when I beat it.
WoodYouLookAtThat@lemmy.today · 2 pts · 5d
Ori and the Blind Forest made me fall in love with Metroidvanias. Such a great series
probably_spork@piefed.zip · 5 pts · 4d
Outer Wilds. Took a lot of time to start and then a lot a time to actually click. Now it is one of my all time favorites.
rustydrd@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 5d
Didn't play The Last of Us until a few months before Part 2 came out. I went into them pretty much blind, and I'm really glad I got to experience them like that. Real masterpieces these games.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 5d
Based on what you've described that you liked about Nine Sols, you should check out Sekiro.
Best game I have ever played in my life. My only complaint is that it has made other games less enjoyable by comparison.
WoodYouLookAtThat@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 5d
I mention it briefly in the post, but Sekiro is currently in my rotation. It's everything I hoped it would be after Nine Sols.
prole@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 4d
Once it clicks, it's like riding a bike. Started a second playthrough a year after beating it, and I beat Genichiro first try.
Peak game design.
Best From Software game in terms of movement and exploration. Best From game in terms of plot and presentation of that plot (it's not completely opaque). Equal to Bloodborne in terms of best setting and visual style by From.
Not only the best combat in any From game, but the best combat in any third person game, period imo. It's perfect... When you get into a flow state, it's like a rhythm game. And the feeling you get when you finally get the timing right and beat a boss, is second to none.
Because you know that it was all you. No cheese builds, no OP weapons. You get better because you get better. You have to, it's the only way to progress in to game. And it makes every single win feel like a legitimate accomplishment.
I'd love to see a sequel
WoodYouLookAtThat@lemmy.today · 1 pts · 4d
That sounds exactly like my nine Sols experience, and I'm excited to experience it again through Sekiro
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works · 5 pts · 4d
From Software Souls-like games.
In fact, I’m still technically sleeping on them as I don’t know where to start. Assuming I can only play on a PS3 or Steam Deck - where would be the best jumping in point?
scutiger@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 4d
I suggest starting with Dark Souls 1 and playing them in order. DS1 is slower and clunkier than the sequels, but will introduce you to the mechanics and playstyle of the series. That clunkiness is especially obvious after playing the sequels. DS2 is the one most people like the least, but it's still pretty decent, and plays somewhat faster than the first. DS3 is the smoothest experience, and probably hardest of the three.
Bloodborne is a more action-oriented experience, definitely a faster pace than the Souls games, and arguably harder because of it.
If you still want more, check out Demon's Souls. Some of the mechanics are tedious and can easily be ignored, others are main parts of the game and have been simplified somewhat in the later games. I haven't played the remake, but apparently it's as close as possible to the original experience, only with upgraded graphics and sound. I read that even the game's timings are exactly replicated.
thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works · 3 pts · 4d
I was expecting you to recommend Elden Ring, honestly!
Willing to tackle the series chronologically, if that’s what you think would be the best way to familiarise myself with the genre.
MissingInteger@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 4d
Elden Ring is a fantastic game and by far my favorite in the Soulsborne series. It’s also at the same time both the hardest and the easiest in the series. If you explore and make use of the tools at your disposal, it can be the easiest. But you can also simply bang your head against every challenge, and then it can be the hardest. Don’t get me wrong; that can also be very fun.
Also, Elden Ring is just incredibly beautiful. Every frame looks like it is straight out of a fantasy novel. The music is fantastic. The story is a bit cryptic, but I personally enjoy that kind of storytelling, and the world-building in Elden Ring is my second favorite in the Soulsborne series - barely behind Bloodborne.
Should you start with Elden Ring? I’m not sure. It's pretty long and complex. If you just want to play one, I would say play this one. If you simply want to play one of them to see if you like the series, I would say play Bloodborne, which is an excellent teacher. But you said you only have a PS3 and Steam Deck, and Bloodborne is a PS4 exclusive. It can be run with an emulator, but that’s pretty resource intensive.
I would argue against starting with Dark Souls 1 unless you plan to tackle the whole series from the get-go. The combat is pretty clunky when compared to the other titles, and the second half is notoriously rushed.
Dark Souls 2 has a special place in my heart, but the RPG mechanics are the most obtuse in the series. Not beginner-friendly.
Dark Souls 3 would be my recommendation to start if you can’t play Bloodborne. The combat mechanics are mature, and the RPG mechanics are relatively understandable. DS3 is also pretty linear, which I personally view more as a negative, but as a newcomer, you are never confused about where to go. Also, Dark Souls 3 is just a pretty fun game.
And yes, you can definitely story-wise play the Dark Souls games out of order. Dark Souls is more about lore and worldbuilding than a story in the strictest sense.
I also want to give a shout-out to the c/Soulslike community here on Lemmy. If you have a question regarding Souls games, you can always ask there.
MrMcGasion@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 5d
I'm not gonna say I slept on it, but I've had Alan Wake in my library for over 5 years. Picked it up on sale around the time I got Control which I really wanted to play but never got around to. Decided since that whole universe seems more interconnected and with more games than it did when I bought them (Alan Wake 2, the upcoming sequel to Control, etc.), I should just do a playthrough of Alan Wake before I finally get around to getting Control off my backlog.
Played through Alan Wake (the original, not the remake) this past weekend, and while it certainly shows its age in some areas, I had a lot more fun than I expected to. If you're into narrative third person "shooter" games like Uncharted, Tomb Raider, or similar, Alan Wake is worth checking out.
I'm looking forward to finally getting to Control this weekend.
octobob@lemmy.ml · 2 pts · 5d
Man I could just not finish the first Alan Wake. The story and setting is ok, the Stephen King-like tropes are pretty heavy handed at times but in a good way. But the controls are god awful and the game does absolutely nothing to change anything about its gameplay of "shine light at monsters and run" for the whole game. It really shows its age playing it 15 years later, just feels clunky and bad. I couldn't care enough about the story and gave up about 3/4 of the way through. Alan Wake 2 is very good however
MrMcGasion@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 5d
Good to know Alan Wake 2 is better. The gameplay loop of the original is definitely a bit repetitive, I intentionally played on "easy" because I knew that going in, and wanted it to feel like less of a slog.
The first 3 Uncharted games also feel like a bit of a slog in many of the same ways for me. There are too many "waves" of enemies in most of the areas and while the stealth mechanics in those games help make things a bit more interesting, the second wave of enemies always finds you immediately and forces you back into guns blazing at enemies going for first-time headshots on the NPCs because it's the fastest way through, and if you miss the headshot and hit the body at all they become bullet sponges even if you follow it up with headshots.
Nelots@piefed.zip · 4 pts · 5d
I don't really play a lot of new games anymore, so I guess the last time I slept on a game for too long was The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth. This was many years ago, I've got 1,200 hours in the game now and 100%'d it multiple times. Butt I can't stand potty humor, so seeing literal giant piles of crap all over the map and dozens of fart related items always immediately turned me away from the game any time I looked at it, despite knowing I'd love playing it. Eventually I gave in and bought it, and surprisingly, the poop didn't bother me much because they don't really make it look especially gross (except for tainted blue baby... fuck you, tainted blue baby). The farts were still bad, but most of those items suck so I can gladly ignore them.
For a while I was desensitized to the potty humor, but then they released the Repentance DLC with the character tainted blue baby, and... ugh. If you don't know what he looks or plays like, feast your eyes on this wonderful wiki page and see how many results show up when you Ctrl+F "poop". He's a character based around the released bowels of a corpse who attacks by defecating. As much as I love the game, the potty humor remains my least favorite part of it by far, and I wish Edmund McMillen wasn't such a freak sometimes.
the16bitgamer@programming.dev · 4 pts · 4d
Persona 5.
Wasn’t the biggest fan of RPGs but 5 is as easy as Chrono Trigger, with a cozy life sim and anime stapled ontop. A fun ride if you enjoy any of these. Though drop the difficulty to easy if you aren’t the biggest fan of RPGs
mohab@piefed.social · 4 pts · 5d
Hmm… probably Vanquish because I don't typically enjoy shooters and I typically play with controllers, not KB+M. I always assumed the shooting would ruin it for me.
Turns out it's a shooter… but not really. It's more of an action game where resource management and positioning are more critical factors than aiming, which's mostly done in bullet time anyway.
I know people who are used to/are good at aiming probably enjoy it more, but I thoroughly enjoyed it as an action game and plan to go back eventually to get the 100%.
It also left me open to similar games like Evil West, if they exist.
Cypher45@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 3 pts · 4d
Nine Sols was amazing!
I played it after I finished Silksong when I just didn't get over the difficult but fair 2D itch yet.
I'm glad I played it, the story, the gameplay, level design, and the music were all great.
And I really loved the Tao + Cyberpunk + Cat people lore and setting, it was really creative.
Zahille7@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 5d
Goddamn man, who's going through and downvoting almost literally every comment?
WoodYouLookAtThat@lemmy.today · 6 pts · 5d
That's exactly what I made this post for -- to inject more life into my game queue
Edit: d'oh, I read this as downloading
Down voting things like this is ridiculous
HubertManne@piefed.social · 3 pts · 4d
I don't really have fomo with games. Im fine playing them later as long as I enjoy them. I only have so much game playing time so im rarely playing something I don't enjoy.
Danitos@reddthat.com · 3 pts · 5d
Neon White.
I kept watching it several times on the store and though it looked interesting but also not quite my style of games, due to its focus on speedrunning, and I definitely didn't want to tryhard a new game. 2-3 years later decided to give it a shot and I'm so glad I did. It is now one of my favorite games of all time.
JigglySackles@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 5d
If you are doing metroidvanias you should try Ghost Song
WoodYouLookAtThat@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 5d
Will check it out! I love a good Metroidvania
JigglySackles@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 5d
It's my favorite in recentish years. It's more exploration and hidden interaction and story than challenge. I've enjoyed that formula a lot though.
MirrorGiraffe@piefed.social · 2 pts · 5d
I heard everyone reference factorio all over the place but never felt compelled to actually pick it up.
Found out it has multiplayer and had a blast with my brother.
IWW4@lemmy.zip · 2 pts · 5d
God War 2018. I had never played any of the previous GOW and after my umpteenth replay of The Last of Us, I read several articles called “Games similar to TLoU”. GOW 2018 was one of them.
Holy hell I fell in love with it.
Zahille7@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 5d
I only ever played one of the PSP GoW games, but I was relatively versed in the lore of the games.
I randomly got GoW 2018 on a steam sale a couple years back and it blew my damn mind. Just everything in the game feels great. Very cinematic.
IWW4@lemmy.zip · 1 pts · 5d
It really is and it is wild how emotional I got about it. I can see how it is a good match with The Last of Us.
GOW Rag is why I bought a PS5 and is just as good.
atopi@piefed.blahaj.zone · 2 pts · 4d
A couple years ago, i found a video about a rhythm game with a cool story named vivid/stasis. Since i was curious about the story and it was free, i added it to my steam library
It took me a while to actually start playing game and its amazing
BlueCollarRockstar@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 5d
X4:Foundations. Never played any of the previous games. It seemed like it was overly complex with a terrible UI, and graphics-wise just kinda empty. The first person bits looked tacked on and downright goofy.
It is, they are, and it feels like it was made specifically for me. It's on the short list of best games I've ever played.
bonesawmcl@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 5d
Recently got back to it after 2 years and I'm still enjoying it very much. The empire must grow and down with the Xenon! lol It's definitely not for everyone, but there is an aspect of the game for almost everyone. It could use a proper main story for beginners, but honestly flying around on a spaceship is just awesome. And the studio is actually one of the older independent studios, with their own graphics engine and a small but very dedicated staff.
HerbGrower@slrpnk.net · 3 pts · 5d
I should play it again, had a few expansions since I last played. Which means learning what all the buttons do again...
Mikina@programming.dev · 2 pts · 4d
It semi-counts, but I'd also add Space Station 14 to the mix. Semi, because 14 is prety recent, but it is a modernized mostly 1:1 rewrite of Space Station 13, which is the game that I'd consider myself sleeping on.
It's my current obsession, that game is just so much fun. A disaster simulator where you throw 100 people into a ~2 hour long shift on a space station, and ask them to keep it afloat. From people doing engineeirng, atmospherics, science, medical, security, cargo and command, janitor, barkeep, etc. It's a great roleplaying experience.
The core design is that most of what you can do can fail spectaculary. Engineering powers the station with a contained black hole or a ball of tesla, better hope they keep the containment maintaned. Science is doing research on artifacts by doing randomly chosen stuff (touch, spill something on it, look at it, etc), which has a random associated effect from "create a monkey", "get radiactive", to "a thermonuclear explosion". Better hope they did scan the artifact before they touched it.
And to add to that, you also have a lot of different antagonist roles you can randomly get, from a blood cult that kidnaps and converts people to spill enough blood to summon their diety, through thiefs, terrorists that want to arm the nuke and destroy the station, to changelings or sleeper agents that are tasked with killing specific crew.
It's loads of fun, and the community is amazing, especially on medium RP server.
BaroqBard@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4d
Songs of Conquest. Had a weird relationship with it at first, almost like I wanted to dislike it, not sure why. I would think "this is so plainly gamified, the map is cartoonish in its resource implementation, the building feels constrictive..."
That said I've kept coming back to it. Something about the high fidelity pixel art, the clarity of its gameplay, the choices it forces, all of it started to really hook me. Even the combat, which first came off to me as insanely swingy, now just feels much more intensely tactical. Sure there are ways to abuse it, but all in all, even the AI is pretty decent (though the autoresolve logic is complete trash).
With the community mods and honestly solid gameplay even with the base factions, I have to say I really recommend it at least for a try to everyone.
absquatulate@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 5d
Honestly Forza Horizon 3. I can probably list a heap of issues I have with this franchise, but they're good driving games and I arrived late to the party wishing I picked FH3 while it was still in its prime. That game has such a vibe.
Mikina@programming.dev · 1 pts · 4d
I've recently started and got through Death Stranding in the past month, and it was an amazing experience. I have not played a AAA game for a looong time, and having an actual motion-captured movie and animations to go along with your game, instead of indie animations and cutscenes, is pretty sick. Plus the game is gorgeous.
I also had no idea how cool the lore and setting is, from what I've randomly heard about the game, all I knew is it's about delivering packages and hooking people in remote areas up to Wifi, I didn't know ::: spoiler (only minor spoilers, it's in the first 20 minutes, so basically the first cutscene) that you also have a rain that rapidly ages anything it touches, unburned corpses turnin into invisible monsters that eat people, which you can only see by hooking a fetus in a pod to yourself, and if the monsters eat anyone alive it literally nukes everything in 50 miles radius to a crater. :::
Which makes deliver packages a lot more exciting than I assumed.
Some of the parts of the story were a little bit weird and a lot of people don't like it, but I like weird, and this had some pretty sick ideas. And the gameplay is also fun!
observes_depths@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 4d
Insurgency Sandstorm. Loved the previous game but my PC at the time couldn't run it. I've had a better PC for years now but I only just picked it up and all my local servers are empty (Australia problems).
TaeKwonDoh@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4d
Believe it or not, GTA V. I don't own a copy but my friend does, and I like it ok.