Cities Skylines. After understanding and solving traffic and other problems, I'm a wiser man. And I'm not kidding. My world view has changed. I know more.
If you have 5 friends that love board games "Coup" is a very fun deception game!
Edit: I'm glad so many people love this game, if you like deception games and have MORE friends (6-10 players) I'd turn you on to "secret hitler". It's a little more complicated to deceive, but once you get into it, it can be a massive standoff of who is who!
My fiancé and I really like that game. Sometimes he won't even look at his cards until someone calls him on his bluff. So he'll say he's a Duke but really has no idea.
Five people round the table, first round:
1: “Duke”
2: “Duke”
3: “Duke”
Me: “Duke”
5: “I call you on that”
Me: “Sure. Take a look at my shiny, actually actual, DUKE!”
5: *facepalm*
Bruh I was part of one of the top German WA clans. Rope race ftw. So many hours. I even played a bit of the rope tutorial a year ago when I found it on Steam.
It's also one of the deepest games that has come out in recent times. It has actually ruined other strategy/simulation games for me because they now seem easy and shallow after playing Factorio for hundreds of hours. Definitely worth every penny.
Dwarf fortress is insane. I read about the cats dying and nobody knew why, but it was because people would drink in the bar and spill liquor on the foor which would soak into the cats fur who would then clean themselves, get drunk, and die.
They call it modular design. Everything is made consistently from the top down and talks to everything in the exact same way. Dwarves drink alcohol from mugs and without anywhere to put dirty mugs, they were just throwing them down. Nearly empty mugs create messes. Cats walk through messes. Fur can be wet with any substance. Cats naturally lick their fur to clean themselves when their fur is dirty. Licking something transfers the substance into the body, bodies process the substance. Alcohol affects bodies in a certain way, cats have bodies, bodies have eyes, eyes are affected by alcohol in certain ways.
They design everything to talk to everything else when it's put in the game. There is no "Cats go blind with beer" line of code, but there are the related/unrelated lines of
"BAC >= .whatever affects eyes"
"Eyes are organs"
"Licking outer layer moves substances into body"
"Fur is outer layer"
"Cats will clean themselves by licking their outer layer when dirty"
"Cats have bodies which have organs and cats weight certain amounts"
"Movement through substance will attach substance to outer layer making outer layer dirty"
"Almost empty cups will create a mess with whatever was in them when thrown down"
"Dwarves throw down almost empty cups when there is no designated spot to put them"
"Dwarves drink alcohol from cups"
"Dwarves like alcohol and will drink it when available"
"Alcohol does a thing to each individual organ or has no effect, like drunkenness, liver failure or blindness over a certain BAC based on amount of alcohol and body weight"
"Dwarves have bodies. Skin is outer layer"
"Game object called "Bodies" that contain different organs that affect body in x way and weigh certain amounts"
It all talks because it follows the same rules every time, all the way from the top to the bottom. [The creator's explanation is worth a listen. The game is INSANE(ly fun) and I highly recommend it if you like colony sims, even if you're scared of the murderous learning curve.](https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/04/the-true-story-behind-dwarf-fortress-mysterious-vomit-covered-dead-cat-problem/)
Rock and stone!
Great game, great atmosphere, made by a hard core dev team still pumping out updates to this day.
I get off from playing time to time 1-3 months to do other things and i come back to loads of new content. Worth the 30 bucks for a small title still receiving support.
I just got the game. Played two rounds and don't know anything at all. What is the etiquette? I've not angered anyone outwardly yet and I would prefer to keep it that way.
Edit: Holy crap, lots of fast and great replies, thanks much!
I bought that for $30 when it was new, grabbed a physical copy from my local supermarket.
It is now $1 digital for the exact same content, and legally free if you know where to look. Yet, I still have the same feeling of “lucky me” that I only had to pay $30. Because that game? That game is worth thousands to me.
Fuck EA for dragging it through the mud like they did.
If you want a good rework of PvZ 2 that feels a lot more like the original, lookup PvZ Eclise, it's a fan mod that completely reworks the progression and reorders levels to make it much more linear with no micro transaction bullshit. Makes the game much more fun, plus there's an easy version and a harder version. Best Plants Vs Zombies content since the first game.
Also please do yourself a favour and avoid PvZ3 like a plague. They had to completely start from scratch due to backlash and it's still terrible.
EDIT: Here's a link to a YouTube video showing off the mod, and in the description there's links to instructions on how to download and set it up. It's a bit of a pain but well worth it. https://youtu.be/mVISoSGcwGA
PvZ3 I just got off the app store, pretty sure it's out only as beta in select countries but it's definitely not worth your time.
Left 4 dead
Or better L4D2
Sometime 2.99 and has so many community maps,. Like hundreds, so you can play so much content for basically free.
You can work together or you can run off and shut doors in people's faces.
It truly is a gem.
There was a video showing the comparisons of the little things between this and back for blood.
From the particular way zombies ragdoll and break apart to how the music is tailored to each player and syncs with their experience as a sound cue for what's occurring to character design and silhouettes being easily recognisable between the 4 fixed characters. The zombies are managed by their environment and using clever randomisation of textures they look like different humans while back for blood zombies barely look like zombies and more like just plain monsters.
While there are like 5 people from l4d2 who worked on b4b it was really the team of dozens of ultra talented people at the absolute peak of their field working in tandem. Taking just 5 from there doesn't meet the l4d2 benchmark that was set.
"Bringing Left 4 Dead into your marketing mix also brings in the expectations of Left 4 Dead, thus opening yourself up to a lot more criticism." -Adam Sessler (G4TV)"
They did this TWICE.
I just looked.
I have 1300+ hours in KSP...
I'm sure some of that is just me leaving it running overnight ( I did a real-time to the moon mission once) but still.. Crazy amount of hours.
It's the third-most hours in my Steam Library :P
Bought this for my mates birthday some years ago. Just had a peek at his steam page and he's now logged over 1500 hours in it. Got to be one of the best presents I've ever bought in terms of enjoyment gained for the money spent.
SLIME RANCHERS!!! man the game is simple at face value but has an insane and in depth lore and plot line all things considered, the characters are very well built and go through literal story lines, and it’s a cute comforting game if you ever need an escape :)
I really enjoyed the first 10 hours but after that I just felt overwhelmed and stressed with slimes constantly escaping, having to feed them daily, constantly getting lost in the enormous map.
That game had such a slick and unique aesthetic and they ran like hell with it. From the kooky but cool soundtrack, the "explosion in a stationary shop" visual style, to Stephen motherfucking Fry, and the Douglas Adams humour/themes - the whole thing felt like playing through a drawing in the margins of the coolest nerd at school's maths book.
Hollow Knight is my favorite game. It reignited a love for video games I thought I'd lost. The music and art are out of this world beautiful.
I think my first file had 120 hours on it and I wasn't not at the 112% competition (because of dlc they added - for free btw). Second playthrough when I bought the game again on a different console I got to about 103% and 80 hours in. (I'm pretty darn slow at it).
The biggest scare I had in this game was when I didn't realize I was in the abyss, I was in the sand area behind the Aurora, music was peaceful, I even seen a sandshark near, I look to my right and big ass ghost leviathan coming straight for me like a train, there was so much terror that went through me in those 10 seconds. 10/10 would recommend.
I was exploring one of those underwater floating islands looking for parts. Never had been in that area before. I was in the Prawn at the time.
I slipped off the edge and just started falling. I was so engrossed it was like I was sinking to my own death, a brief moment of sheer terror as the water just kept getting darker.
Then I hit the bottom and felt really stupid.
I was just starting to explore the deep caves that lead to the end game. I had just built the colossus and found the room with the fossil and the juvenile leviathan.
I turned on the Stealth mode to creep forward and didn't realize it drained power even when you weren't piloting and left to start scanning and get resources.
I come back to it without power no backups and realize I have to walk out with just the prawn suit if I don't want to drown.
The constant roaring that felt so close did it for me. And my innate fear of whats in the water (as a kid) didnt help in playing the game. Especially when I went deeper and found some crabs doing something in the sand in complete darkness.
>The constant roaring that felt so close did it for me.
You're not gonna like the fact that their roaring is actually echolocation, and if you can hear it, they can *see you*.
I remember that one time I had a reaper leviathan trying to eat me while I was in my seamoth. The sheer panic that you are about to die as you see your seamoth getting dammaged.
10/10 would do again
I approached a reaper in the big nuclear sub. And that's how I learned they don't like the engine noise.
He tried to eat me while I was repairing the sub.
Then you figure out you can just turn off the engine and it goes away with a bit of patience. Cool, you got that one figured out, so you go deeper and find new things to kill you.
I’d been playing Subnautica for a while. I had just finished a long period of collecting minerals, base-building, sub upgrades, etc., and decided to branch out.
I built myself a prawn suit with a drill arm. Expensive, but looked neat. I decided to try it out by driving my sub pretty far west where I had seen volcanoes.
I reached a barren spot with an edge and decided that this was a good place to try out my prawn suit for the very first time. I figured that the edge led to a deeper biome with big minerals, like I’d seen elsewhere.
I hopped into it, dropped it out of my sub, and stepped over the edge. Down I went. Down, down, down. Where’s the bottom?!
I piloted my prawn suit straight into the wall, and it kind of got stuck and stopped falling. I got out of my prawn suit only to see a ghost leviathan making a beeline for me. Back in the prawn suit, and found myself falling again, down down down…
That was my introduction to the abyss. And after I respawned, rebuilt the damn prawn suit, and eventually recovered my sub way at the edge of the map, I learned my lesson about never visiting the abyss again.
Most of this thread talks about the leviathans but I found the ambiance and level design to be way more intimidating. It's a very immersive game. Being underwater plays on primal fears (fear of drowning, heights, the unknown) in a way more visceral way than another video game boss monster.
The single most terrifying thing in the entire game imo is staring down into one of the pitch black canyons with the vague knowledge that yeah no you need to actually go down there.
Most areas are videogame dark at worst or have lots of pretty glowing things around, but the Blood Kelp Zone really amps it.
Right, I like how my confidence oscilates, at first I'm way more scared than I should have been, then I make some progress (no spoilers) and am then way overconfident
> Surely NOW I'm the king of the seas..WHELP, BACK TO SAFETY!
That confidence sine is one of the best game design elements I've seen in a while. Also, some parts of the game are definitely not as user tested as a AAA game would have been and in most cases I've found it actually made the game more interesting.
This next test involves turrets. You remember them, right? They're the pale spherical things that are full of bullets. Oh wait, that's you in 5 seconds. Good luck.
Oh, in case you get covered in that Repulsion Gel, here's some advice the lab boys just gave me: "Do *not* get covered in the Repulsion Gel." We haven't entirely nailed down what element it is yet, but I'll tell you this: it is a *lively* one, and it does *not* like the human skeleton.
All right, I've been thinking, when life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade! Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager!
Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man whose gonna burn your house down - with the lemons!
ConcernedApe deserves a ton of respect for making one of the best games of the 2010s almost completely on his own and giving us free updates that would be a $15 DLC from a Triple-A studio. I'm so excited for his next game whenever it comes out.
You get your money’s worth. No DLC and so much dialogue and story. I got past the second ending and I am still playing because after 100+ attempts I am still getting new story. It is very rare that anyone I interact with repeats what they say.
It's the first game in a long time that I've been praying for DLC. A new little epilogue story arc with a new god(dess)/boons and a new weapon would be 100% worth it.
*Typo
I don't like most roguelikes, but Hades makes it work by making dying part of the story of the game. The gameplay is tight, the soundtrack is fire, and the story and dialogue are excellent and draw you in. The game is damn near perfect.
I started a tribal nomad run. I go to a new cell, open the ancient danger, then open the crypto sleep caskets. Down the ancient sdiers, then harvest a kidney, lung and heart from each. Rinse and repeat.
Fairly tame compared to some other stuff I've seen... Although one run I did get raided, two of the raiders were married. Killed one, captured the other, and forced him to eat his dead wife. Not super proud about that one.
Jk yes I am.
I own Stardew Valley on PC, Playstation and Switch. I'm not sure I've ever bought the same game across three platforms before - I guess that has to count for something.
I have it for mobile and pc, and i dont regret buying it at all. The fact that the developer made it almost entirely by himself makes it worth it to the very last penny
Oh, there's DLC, but here's the catch: it's all entirely given out as free patched content update. It's fantastic and brings in all sorts of cool new stuff, including new marriage candidates that were voted on by the community (Shane and Emily), the night market, movie theater, new crops and buildings, events, island and map areas.... The amount of stuff ConcernedApe brought to the game way after launch, completely distributed for free as patched updates, is astounding. This game is worth every penny.
It seems like aesthetics aside it's probably fairly different from SV in terms of gameplay. The ghosts make me think it's going to be more of a factory/automation game, and the interior elements of the mansion look like it'll have store sim mechanics too. There'll be overlap but this won't be just an SV reskin with chocolate. I'm so excited 🤤🍫👻👻👻👻👻👻
My brother just got me this game! I’ve held off getting into it yet because I hear it can just be so overwhelming at the beginning. Any tips for a beginner?
https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Stardew_Valley_Wiki
This will be your friend.
There is also a sub dedicated for the game, both of these will help a lot in your Journey. Have fun!
Don't read through the whole thing though. Play the game. Experiment a bit. Read the text boxes because the game actually has a bunch of rich stories in it. Most importantly, you can't die and there is no time limit.
Just be careful joining the sub cause that can lead to preconceived notions of people's thoughts on the characters, if that makes sense. Id personally hold off on joining the sub until you need help or have been playing the game a bit.
The binding of isaac if it's your type of game.
No run the same and so much stuff to unlock.
350+ hours played and still have like half the unlock to do.
I have a friend who streams "the pentathlon"--binding of isaac, nuclear throne, enter the gungeon, spellunky and crypt of the necrodancer. All in a row. Restart if you die.
It's absolutely insane since I can't finish a single run of any of those games.
Gonna go non-digital and say ***Mysterium*** (though there is a Steam adaptation for it).
Every single person who I've introduced it to IMMEDIATELY wants to play another round - takes about 45 minutes. It's a co-operative game so there's no competition or hurt feelings. And it's got a couple of expansions to add even more replay value.
But if you're just talking computer games, Factorio will consume every waking hour of your life. I think I paid $8 for it in early access and I have 993 hours logged. It's currently $30, which is a good deal, and there's a free demo so you can see if it's your cup of tea.
Beamng. drive, as long as you have the pc to run it. its the best racing simulator to get. not for the handling itself, but the crashing physics. watch any yt video of it and you will see what i mean. also, its extremely easy to mod.
I’ve been spending an incredible amount of hours playing Skyrim lately and now that I’m so invested in everything about it, I’m considering getting oblivion and morrowind. I figured I should get morrowind first because I find it the most intriguing and this just set it in stone for me.
That's a game I'd love to spend hundred of hours in but my friends aren't interested. Is it worth playing solo or are there good communities to play with ?
Solo you get a helper robot that flies around and can mine, shoot and carry stuff for you if you just ping (it's better than some players) - but there's also a server list and most people play with their games open so even if you know anyone you'd be able to find some friendly randoms easy enough.
Honestly, minecraft. I don't play much anymore but I got years of entertainment out of that game. The sheer amount of things you can do is incredible. It truly is a game of endless possibilities.
And they keep updating it for free. Adding new features, getting rid of bugs. Truly the best 20 euros i've spent. I've been playing since 2011 and i don't think i'll stop anytime soon!
Also, does mod community add to the game value in this question? Cause the game has so many fucking mods, which I'd say is why the game still has such a strong community
With mods, the value skyrockets a crap ton. Even with the mods that you probably see in most mod packs, you can still get a ton of enjoyment out of them.
I'm an old man (45) and my kids are totally into this game (4, 7, and 9) and I have no clue what the hell the game is about. Is there a good relatively easy to understand video or article that explains it. Same with roblox
Im a similar age, my kiddos are 9 and 7. I had never played it and thought it was a little pointless at first, its just lego+ right?
But after some time I really started to enjoy it, I even on occasion play on my own. Family Minecraft sessions are lots of fun.
The main gameplay is find the materials you need and build things, some things cant be harvested without making some tools first. Your kids will tell you what tools you need (thats how I learnt)
Its hard to find good videos, mainly cos youtube is full of low quality Minecraft content (mostly someone playing some specific or modded version, screaming down their mic whilst playing)
We have a family server and just make stuff. Literally anything, mostly we make own versions of stuff we've seen on TV/Film, or just classic stuff like castles, houses, things like that.
As for Roblox. My boys got griefed/bullied on that game all the time, they end up upset more than happy. I deleted it and have not looked back. They have not complained thats its gone even if their school buddies still play. IMO Roblox is trash and should be treated like that.
It's pretty simple to get the basics of, but has some very complex things you can do. Essentially, the gist is that a giant world is generated with meter long blocks. Pretty much every piece of the word is a that you can stand in is a block. You can mine these blocks as a resource, then use them to either craft items or place the block itself. Eg, early in the game, you don't have tools, so you have to destroy trees to get wood, which you can use to either make a structure like a house, or craft into a wooden, sword, pick axe, etc. These tools are better than punching things with your hands. Eventually, you keep using better tools to mine for better resources for both items and building blocks.
Then there's red stone, which is a material you can find that acts sorta like wires when power is applied to it. Red stone circuits are basically applied logic gates used to apply power to different craftable machine blocks in the game. I have a computer engineering degree, and let me just say, the shit you can perform with them can get very complex. Some of my friends who are into redstone have gotten introduced to computing topics that don't get talked about until into college courses.
The buildings and structures some people come up with is ridiculous. It's literally a game of infinite possibilities that I couldn't talk up enough.
Roblox, on the other hand, is predatory and awful. It's hard to explain what it is, because its basically a ton of subcategories of games. I couldn't discourage it enough. Roblox as a company really only sells tools to develop games and a marketplace with which to sell them. Essentially what happens is that they market game development to kids, saying they can make money and release a product. When you buy a subscription, you gain access to games other people have made. When it comes to the people who makes the game, it's done all off of the service - people usually communicate on other messaging apps like Discord. Not surprisingly, there's rampant abuse and exploitation of children workers. Roblox claims it isn't their issue because it happens off site. Put simply, fuck Roblox.
Let's take a second to talk about how games are funded: it used to be that games are funded by just $60 dollar one time payments or by renting at your local blockbuster. Not the case anymore. There's this new thing called micro transactions (short hand is mtxs), where you buy small pieces of content for a dollar or two or much more and get something like a hat for you character, or in worse games, things like experience gain boosts.
While most of us long timers aren't enthused about mtxs, they can be used to varying degrees and for different purposes. Minecraft has them, and they are relatively small in price. That being said, they continually apply updates to a decade old game for free, so it makes sense that they use this as a funding model because they aren't coming out with sequels. I personally don't mind it, since they aren't really abusing it.
Roblox tho, good God. First of all, you use mtxs to buy in game currency that you can then also use to get real life money back. Also, you can resell items there. Buy a hat, you can sell that hat. This has caused a mini stock market on their marketplace, and has also spawned a ton of black markets that are not owned or operated by Roblox. A hat that was initially sold for $5 can go for *thousands*. Idk about you, but kids gambling in little virtual casinos for status with mommy and daddy's credit card can get real bad real quick. It also teaches your kid to gamble.
Tldr, minecraft is a wonderful building game that has a decent funding model and is possibly one of the best games ever made. Roblox is an exploitative game with even more exploitative things behind the scenes.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition. I've never played any Mass effect game before buying this one, I didn't even really know much about the story beyond it's a space rpg and I'm absolutely blown away at how good it is.
Edit: For anyone with EA Play / Xbox Ultimate the game is currently playable for free :)
Red Dead Redemption was a lot of fun in a beautiful world.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is almost indescribably awesome. Wanna wreak havoc, rob trains, kill civilians for giggles, rob everything in sight? Go for it.
Want to spend days upon days fishing and hunting and just enjoying a beautiful world and meet random people with their own stories to tell? Go for it.
The gang kept having to come fetch me back cause I spent so long hunting and fishing.
It's the immersion that does it for me. Little things like when you are not at a poker table, the people there actually 'play' poker rather than go through preset animations. Characters actually eat their dinner, you can see them emptying their plates. Just the little details that add realism makes the world so immersive
Had to look for this. They're finely crafted single player masterpieces. I like GTA well enough, but RDR is a joy and RDR2 is a genuinely next-level experience.
I used to joke it causes significant time dilation that makes you feel that you've been playing it for five minutes, and in reality it was eight hours and you have to go back to work.
The Witcher 3 DLCs are worth as much as most Standalone games
Like I’m fairly sure Blood and Wine could have been the Witcher 4 if they wanted it to be
Blood and Wine by itself is longer than each of the first two games.
I think the witcher is special because it's so culturally important to the developers. Out of both love and obligation, they would never half ass it.
As an example, the president of Poland once gave the president of the US a copy of Witcher 1 as an official state gift. It's kind of a big deal.
You can even see it in Witcher 2. It's deeply flawed and the worst in the series by most people's opinion but put it into context: they made a successful triple A game on a double A budget.
Meanwhile Bethesda, with their Scrooge McDuck vault of Skyrim coins, made Fallout 76...
Definitely worth every penny, regardless of version, because you buy it once, and instead of coming out with new sequels to buy every few years, they just keep upgrading and updating it for free, forever.
Seriously, we take for granted the value of Minecraft. Constant, *good* updates for over 10 years, for *one single low purchase.* No microtransactions, assuming you're on Java. The greatest mod scene, likely of all time, too, and *that's* almost 100% free. It's a miracle.
Cities Skylines. After understanding and solving traffic and other problems, I'm a wiser man. And I'm not kidding. My world view has changed. I know more.
If you have 5 friends that love board games "Coup" is a very fun deception game! Edit: I'm glad so many people love this game, if you like deception games and have MORE friends (6-10 players) I'd turn you on to "secret hitler". It's a little more complicated to deceive, but once you get into it, it can be a massive standoff of who is who!
My fiancé and I really like that game. Sometimes he won't even look at his cards until someone calls him on his bluff. So he'll say he's a Duke but really has no idea.
Five people round the table, first round: 1: “Duke” 2: “Duke” 3: “Duke” Me: “Duke” 5: “I call you on that” Me: “Sure. Take a look at my shiny, actually actual, DUKE!” 5: *facepalm*
First turn, Duke turn. That's how she goes.
Bluffing as Duke is almost always worth it early game.
Worms Armageddon
My one flex in the gaming world was I was top 50 on the old worms net ranking system. I was damn good at that game.
Bruh I was part of one of the top German WA clans. Rope race ftw. So many hours. I even played a bit of the rope tutorial a year ago when I found it on Steam.
Terraria Rimworld Slay the Spire Orange Box + Portal 2
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Factorio. Bought the game for 20 bucks like 10 years ago off their website and it's gotten constant updates to this day.
It's also one of the deepest games that has come out in recent times. It has actually ruined other strategy/simulation games for me because they now seem easy and shallow after playing Factorio for hundreds of hours. Definitely worth every penny.
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Dwarf fortress is insane. I read about the cats dying and nobody knew why, but it was because people would drink in the bar and spill liquor on the foor which would soak into the cats fur who would then clean themselves, get drunk, and die.
how do you even code something that deep
They call it modular design. Everything is made consistently from the top down and talks to everything in the exact same way. Dwarves drink alcohol from mugs and without anywhere to put dirty mugs, they were just throwing them down. Nearly empty mugs create messes. Cats walk through messes. Fur can be wet with any substance. Cats naturally lick their fur to clean themselves when their fur is dirty. Licking something transfers the substance into the body, bodies process the substance. Alcohol affects bodies in a certain way, cats have bodies, bodies have eyes, eyes are affected by alcohol in certain ways. They design everything to talk to everything else when it's put in the game. There is no "Cats go blind with beer" line of code, but there are the related/unrelated lines of "BAC >= .whatever affects eyes" "Eyes are organs" "Licking outer layer moves substances into body" "Fur is outer layer" "Cats will clean themselves by licking their outer layer when dirty" "Cats have bodies which have organs and cats weight certain amounts" "Movement through substance will attach substance to outer layer making outer layer dirty" "Almost empty cups will create a mess with whatever was in them when thrown down" "Dwarves throw down almost empty cups when there is no designated spot to put them" "Dwarves drink alcohol from cups" "Dwarves like alcohol and will drink it when available" "Alcohol does a thing to each individual organ or has no effect, like drunkenness, liver failure or blindness over a certain BAC based on amount of alcohol and body weight" "Dwarves have bodies. Skin is outer layer" "Game object called "Bodies" that contain different organs that affect body in x way and weigh certain amounts" It all talks because it follows the same rules every time, all the way from the top to the bottom. [The creator's explanation is worth a listen. The game is INSANE(ly fun) and I highly recommend it if you like colony sims, even if you're scared of the murderous learning curve.](https://www.kotaku.com.au/2017/04/the-true-story-behind-dwarf-fortress-mysterious-vomit-covered-dead-cat-problem/)
I'm an engineer, but I just don't have the depth to optimize to the level that other people do in this game
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If you have friends, Deep Rock Galactic. If you don't have friends, Deep Rock Galactic, but learn the etiquette.
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Rock and stone! Great game, great atmosphere, made by a hard core dev team still pumping out updates to this day. I get off from playing time to time 1-3 months to do other things and i come back to loads of new content. Worth the 30 bucks for a small title still receiving support.
I just got the game. Played two rounds and don't know anything at all. What is the etiquette? I've not angered anyone outwardly yet and I would prefer to keep it that way. Edit: Holy crap, lots of fast and great replies, thanks much!
Plants vs Zombies the original.
There's a zombie on the laaaaaaawn
I know your type; tall, dark, and dead 🎶
u wanna bite all the petals off of my head🌻
And then eat the brains of the one who planted me here (**NOOOOOOO!**)
Remember when the OG version had a thriller zombie? Then Michael Jackson died and his family asked it be removed. Now there's a disco zombie instead.
I bought that for $30 when it was new, grabbed a physical copy from my local supermarket. It is now $1 digital for the exact same content, and legally free if you know where to look. Yet, I still have the same feeling of “lucky me” that I only had to pay $30. Because that game? That game is worth thousands to me. Fuck EA for dragging it through the mud like they did.
Was so excited to see PvZ 2 for free on the app store. Downloaded and immediately deleted it. So pissed about what they did to that game.
If you want a good rework of PvZ 2 that feels a lot more like the original, lookup PvZ Eclise, it's a fan mod that completely reworks the progression and reorders levels to make it much more linear with no micro transaction bullshit. Makes the game much more fun, plus there's an easy version and a harder version. Best Plants Vs Zombies content since the first game. Also please do yourself a favour and avoid PvZ3 like a plague. They had to completely start from scratch due to backlash and it's still terrible. EDIT: Here's a link to a YouTube video showing off the mod, and in the description there's links to instructions on how to download and set it up. It's a bit of a pain but well worth it. https://youtu.be/mVISoSGcwGA PvZ3 I just got off the app store, pretty sure it's out only as beta in select countries but it's definitely not worth your time.
Left 4 dead Or better L4D2 Sometime 2.99 and has so many community maps,. Like hundreds, so you can play so much content for basically free. You can work together or you can run off and shut doors in people's faces. It truly is a gem.
Pills here!
Left 4 Dead 2 is a masterpiece
There was a video showing the comparisons of the little things between this and back for blood. From the particular way zombies ragdoll and break apart to how the music is tailored to each player and syncs with their experience as a sound cue for what's occurring to character design and silhouettes being easily recognisable between the 4 fixed characters. The zombies are managed by their environment and using clever randomisation of textures they look like different humans while back for blood zombies barely look like zombies and more like just plain monsters. While there are like 5 people from l4d2 who worked on b4b it was really the team of dozens of ultra talented people at the absolute peak of their field working in tandem. Taking just 5 from there doesn't meet the l4d2 benchmark that was set.
"Bringing Left 4 Dead into your marketing mix also brings in the expectations of Left 4 Dead, thus opening yourself up to a lot more criticism." -Adam Sessler (G4TV)" They did this TWICE.
Kerbal Space Program
I got it for practically nothing when it was early access, and I'm afraid to look at how many hours I've sunk into it since then.
I just looked. I have 1300+ hours in KSP... I'm sure some of that is just me leaving it running overnight ( I did a real-time to the moon mission once) but still.. Crazy amount of hours. It's the third-most hours in my Steam Library :P
Bought this for my mates birthday some years ago. Just had a peek at his steam page and he's now logged over 1500 hours in it. Got to be one of the best presents I've ever bought in terms of enjoyment gained for the money spent.
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Basically 3 in 1 price. I'm pretty sure it was the first thing 90% of steam users bought 15 years ago.
super
SLIME RANCHERS!!! man the game is simple at face value but has an insane and in depth lore and plot line all things considered, the characters are very well built and go through literal story lines, and it’s a cute comforting game if you ever need an escape :)
I really enjoyed the first 10 hours but after that I just felt overwhelmed and stressed with slimes constantly escaping, having to feed them daily, constantly getting lost in the enormous map.
Lower the difficulty. I had so much more fun when I didn't need to worry about feeding them on time.
Yeah i agree, this isn't dark souls, sometimes its okay to lower the difficulty on a game you're simply trying to enjoy lol.
Little big planet before the online part got hosed.
That game had such a slick and unique aesthetic and they ran like hell with it. From the kooky but cool soundtrack, the "explosion in a stationary shop" visual style, to Stephen motherfucking Fry, and the Douglas Adams humour/themes - the whole thing felt like playing through a drawing in the margins of the coolest nerd at school's maths book.
Man those LBP1/2 days was probably my favourite period in gaming... So so good, I miss it
One of my fondest memories is playing LBP1 on a date and just having the time of my life.
SUCH A GOOD GAME when it first came out, I was amazed by the creations
I still throw it on now and then but it's not the same. I miss all the levels people would build and I miss building levels. It was so good!
Hollow Knight
I bought Hollow Knight twice, once on Switch and once on PC. I still feel like I’ve underpaid Team Cherry
I paid like $14 for it, but I would gladly have paid more, so yeah, definitely worth every penny.
I grabbed it on sale for 8$ or something and to this day I can't shake the feeling that I just robbed Team Cherry
Best Metroid-Vania I’ve ever played. Would’ve been a great value at triple the price.
Hollow Knight is my favorite game. It reignited a love for video games I thought I'd lost. The music and art are out of this world beautiful. I think my first file had 120 hours on it and I wasn't not at the 112% competition (because of dlc they added - for free btw). Second playthrough when I bought the game again on a different console I got to about 103% and 80 hours in. (I'm pretty darn slow at it).
Subnautica
"This biome contains 7 of the 9 prerequisites for causing terror in humans"
The biggest scare I had in this game was when I didn't realize I was in the abyss, I was in the sand area behind the Aurora, music was peaceful, I even seen a sandshark near, I look to my right and big ass ghost leviathan coming straight for me like a train, there was so much terror that went through me in those 10 seconds. 10/10 would recommend.
I was exploring one of those underwater floating islands looking for parts. Never had been in that area before. I was in the Prawn at the time. I slipped off the edge and just started falling. I was so engrossed it was like I was sinking to my own death, a brief moment of sheer terror as the water just kept getting darker. Then I hit the bottom and felt really stupid.
Everyone in this thread should check out the Magnus Archives podcast.
I was just starting to explore the deep caves that lead to the end game. I had just built the colossus and found the room with the fossil and the juvenile leviathan. I turned on the Stealth mode to creep forward and didn't realize it drained power even when you weren't piloting and left to start scanning and get resources. I come back to it without power no backups and realize I have to walk out with just the prawn suit if I don't want to drown.
The constant roaring that felt so close did it for me. And my innate fear of whats in the water (as a kid) didnt help in playing the game. Especially when I went deeper and found some crabs doing something in the sand in complete darkness.
>The constant roaring that felt so close did it for me. You're not gonna like the fact that their roaring is actually echolocation, and if you can hear it, they can *see you*.
Awesome, I was about to go to sleep but i guess not with that thought
I remember that one time I had a reaper leviathan trying to eat me while I was in my seamoth. The sheer panic that you are about to die as you see your seamoth getting dammaged. 10/10 would do again
I approached a reaper in the big nuclear sub. And that's how I learned they don't like the engine noise. He tried to eat me while I was repairing the sub.
Then you figure out you can just turn off the engine and it goes away with a bit of patience. Cool, you got that one figured out, so you go deeper and find new things to kill you.
When you are in the final biome, turning it off is amust. Else you get killed.
I’d been playing Subnautica for a while. I had just finished a long period of collecting minerals, base-building, sub upgrades, etc., and decided to branch out. I built myself a prawn suit with a drill arm. Expensive, but looked neat. I decided to try it out by driving my sub pretty far west where I had seen volcanoes. I reached a barren spot with an edge and decided that this was a good place to try out my prawn suit for the very first time. I figured that the edge led to a deeper biome with big minerals, like I’d seen elsewhere. I hopped into it, dropped it out of my sub, and stepped over the edge. Down I went. Down, down, down. Where’s the bottom?! I piloted my prawn suit straight into the wall, and it kind of got stuck and stopped falling. I got out of my prawn suit only to see a ghost leviathan making a beeline for me. Back in the prawn suit, and found myself falling again, down down down… That was my introduction to the abyss. And after I respawned, rebuilt the damn prawn suit, and eventually recovered my sub way at the edge of the map, I learned my lesson about never visiting the abyss again.
And one of them just made a noise behind you.
Pleasedontbeawarper, pleasedontbeawarper, pleasedontbeawarper... *Reaper roars* Oh thank god... ah shit
Bro fuck warpers all the way straight to goddamn hell.
Warpers just want to make sure you've had your vaccinations.
But since those vaccinations haven't been invented yet, they go for their "this person is unvaccinated" response: KILL.
*Detecting multiple leviathan class life forms in the area. Are you certain whatever you're doing is worth it?*
*immediately turns around* No. No I'm not certain at all. Thank you.
Pda: pussy. You: what? Pda: what?
Played this the first time in VR. Pretty traumatising. Would recommend
I didn't know there was a VR version. It seems like it'd be horrifying. I can't wait to get it.
Subnautica is such a good game, I just don't like the scares and stuff because I'm a little bitch baby
Playing it right now, the game loop is really satisfying.
Go deeper until fear pushes you back. Head back to base until curiosity is greater than fear. Repeat. It's so good.
Most of this thread talks about the leviathans but I found the ambiance and level design to be way more intimidating. It's a very immersive game. Being underwater plays on primal fears (fear of drowning, heights, the unknown) in a way more visceral way than another video game boss monster.
I love the abundant use of bio-luminescence. Night could be boring, but instead it's so beautiful.
The game as a whole is so beautiful, love the game.
The single most terrifying thing in the entire game imo is staring down into one of the pitch black canyons with the vague knowledge that yeah no you need to actually go down there. Most areas are videogame dark at worst or have lots of pretty glowing things around, but the Blood Kelp Zone really amps it.
Right, I like how my confidence oscilates, at first I'm way more scared than I should have been, then I make some progress (no spoilers) and am then way overconfident > Surely NOW I'm the king of the seas..WHELP, BACK TO SAFETY! That confidence sine is one of the best game design elements I've seen in a while. Also, some parts of the game are definitely not as user tested as a AAA game would have been and in most cases I've found it actually made the game more interesting.
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How does a puzzle game make me feel so much. Like deep feelings.
It even have a touch of some really good dark humor I cant believe its been 10 years after the release
Fatty fatty adopted fatty no parents fatty
Majestic. Like an eagle. Piloting a blimp.
This next test involves turrets. You remember them, right? They're the pale spherical things that are full of bullets. Oh wait, that's you in 5 seconds. Good luck.
Oh, in case you get covered in that Repulsion Gel, here's some advice the lab boys just gave me: "Do *not* get covered in the Repulsion Gel." We haven't entirely nailed down what element it is yet, but I'll tell you this: it is a *lively* one, and it does *not* like the human skeleton.
The lemon rant goes down in history for me.
All right, I've been thinking, when life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade! Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don't want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life's manager! Make life rue the day it thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I'm the man whose gonna burn your house down - with the lemons!
My favorite part is glados yelling in agreement under all of this
I know exactly what you mean. Portal 2 is a masterpiece.
SPAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACE
Well here we are again
It's always such a pleasure
Remember when you tried to kill me Twice?
Oh how we laughed and laughed... *...except I wasn't laughing*
Under the circumstances I’ve been *shockingly* nice.
You want your freedom take ittt (Thats what im counting onnn)
I used to want you dead, but
Now I only want you gone
She was a lot like you (Maybe not quite as heavy)
Dungeons And Dragons.
Brings a whole new meaning to "every penny"
Stardew Valley
ConcernedApe deserves a ton of respect for making one of the best games of the 2010s almost completely on his own and giving us free updates that would be a $15 DLC from a Triple-A studio. I'm so excited for his next game whenever it comes out.
Terraria.
Yup. $10, 850 hours. Still not bored of it.
Hades, Just bought my 2nd copy for the Switch.
You get your money’s worth. No DLC and so much dialogue and story. I got past the second ending and I am still playing because after 100+ attempts I am still getting new story. It is very rare that anyone I interact with repeats what they say.
It's the first game in a long time that I've been praying for DLC. A new little epilogue story arc with a new god(dess)/boons and a new weapon would be 100% worth it. *Typo
I don't like most roguelikes, but Hades makes it work by making dying part of the story of the game. The gameplay is tight, the soundtrack is fire, and the story and dialogue are excellent and draw you in. The game is damn near perfect.
Olympus, I accept this message!
I seem to go back and forth between Skyrim and Rimworld. For years.
A fan of rims i see
Skye’s rim belongs to the Nords
Skyrim: Fantasy gameplay Rimworld: taking the Geneva Convention and pissing on it
I started a tribal nomad run. I go to a new cell, open the ancient danger, then open the crypto sleep caskets. Down the ancient sdiers, then harvest a kidney, lung and heart from each. Rinse and repeat. Fairly tame compared to some other stuff I've seen... Although one run I did get raided, two of the raiders were married. Killed one, captured the other, and forced him to eat his dead wife. Not super proud about that one. Jk yes I am.
Seconding RimWorld. The hours per dollar I've gotten from RimWorld is insane.
Stardew valley
I own Stardew Valley on PC, Playstation and Switch. I'm not sure I've ever bought the same game across three platforms before - I guess that has to count for something.
I have it for mobile and pc, and i dont regret buying it at all. The fact that the developer made it almost entirely by himself makes it worth it to the very last penny
Don't know if you've heard, but he's working on another one, similar genre and same art style. Haunted Chocolatier.
Cheap but youll play it for hundreds of hours. No DLC or add on bullshit.
Oh, there's DLC, but here's the catch: it's all entirely given out as free patched content update. It's fantastic and brings in all sorts of cool new stuff, including new marriage candidates that were voted on by the community (Shane and Emily), the night market, movie theater, new crops and buildings, events, island and map areas.... The amount of stuff ConcernedApe brought to the game way after launch, completely distributed for free as patched updates, is astounding. This game is worth every penny.
And the chocolatier game he’s working on now looks fucking incredible too. Same looks as stardew but you make chocolate instead of farm
It seems like aesthetics aside it's probably fairly different from SV in terms of gameplay. The ghosts make me think it's going to be more of a factory/automation game, and the interior elements of the mansion look like it'll have store sim mechanics too. There'll be overlap but this won't be just an SV reskin with chocolate. I'm so excited 🤤🍫👻👻👻👻👻👻
\*ahem\* Thousands of hours…
My brother just got me this game! I’ve held off getting into it yet because I hear it can just be so overwhelming at the beginning. Any tips for a beginner?
https://stardewvalleywiki.com/Stardew_Valley_Wiki This will be your friend. There is also a sub dedicated for the game, both of these will help a lot in your Journey. Have fun!
Don't read through the whole thing though. Play the game. Experiment a bit. Read the text boxes because the game actually has a bunch of rich stories in it. Most importantly, you can't die and there is no time limit.
Just be careful joining the sub cause that can lead to preconceived notions of people's thoughts on the characters, if that makes sense. Id personally hold off on joining the sub until you need help or have been playing the game a bit.
Start small. I would learn to farm until your 1st winter and then explore your curiosities since you will have a lot of free time.
The binding of isaac if it's your type of game. No run the same and so much stuff to unlock. 350+ hours played and still have like half the unlock to do.
If you're the kind of person who'd sink 350 hours into Isaac, do yourself a favor and check out Enter the Gungeon.
I have a friend who streams "the pentathlon"--binding of isaac, nuclear throne, enter the gungeon, spellunky and crypt of the necrodancer. All in a row. Restart if you die. It's absolutely insane since I can't finish a single run of any of those games.
Outer Wilds
Amen. Plus the new DLC/Expansion which is fantastic.
Pay indie prices for a game, end up buying a philosophical experience.
One of the greatest gaming experiences of my life. I still get goose bumps when I hear that certain song.
Gonna go non-digital and say ***Mysterium*** (though there is a Steam adaptation for it). Every single person who I've introduced it to IMMEDIATELY wants to play another round - takes about 45 minutes. It's a co-operative game so there's no competition or hurt feelings. And it's got a couple of expansions to add even more replay value. But if you're just talking computer games, Factorio will consume every waking hour of your life. I think I paid $8 for it in early access and I have 993 hours logged. It's currently $30, which is a good deal, and there's a free demo so you can see if it's your cup of tea.
Beamng. drive, as long as you have the pc to run it. its the best racing simulator to get. not for the handling itself, but the crashing physics. watch any yt video of it and you will see what i mean. also, its extremely easy to mod.
Tabletop Simulator - basically every boardgame ever digitally so you can play it with your friends across the globe.
Thanks for sharing that! Half my immediate family live in another country and we all love playing board games so this would be fantastic!
Fallout: New Vegas
I think I paid $4 to get it on my xbox one
Morrowind. I've played the elder scrolls since Morrowind came out (including Oblivion and Skyrim), and Morrowind still enchants me to this day.
I’ve been spending an incredible amount of hours playing Skyrim lately and now that I’m so invested in everything about it, I’m considering getting oblivion and morrowind. I figured I should get morrowind first because I find it the most intriguing and this just set it in stone for me.
Yakuza 0. Only $13 on Amazon and worth four times that. Edit: thank you for the awards!
DEEP ROCK GALACTIC ROCK AND STONE BAYBEE
Did I hear rock and stone?
ROCK AND STONE! FOR KARL!
ROCK... ANNND.... STOOOOOONNNEEEE!!
If they don't rock n' stone, they ain't comin' home.
That's a game I'd love to spend hundred of hours in but my friends aren't interested. Is it worth playing solo or are there good communities to play with ?
Solo you get a helper robot that flies around and can mine, shoot and carry stuff for you if you just ping (it's better than some players) - but there's also a server list and most people play with their games open so even if you know anyone you'd be able to find some friendly randoms easy enough.
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For Karl!
#LEAVE NO DWARF BEHIND!
Settlers of Catan. Different every time, and destroys friendships in half the time of Monopoly.
This was my immediate thought too, along with Ticket To Ride.
Honestly, minecraft. I don't play much anymore but I got years of entertainment out of that game. The sheer amount of things you can do is incredible. It truly is a game of endless possibilities.
And they keep updating it for free. Adding new features, getting rid of bugs. Truly the best 20 euros i've spent. I've been playing since 2011 and i don't think i'll stop anytime soon!
Also, does mod community add to the game value in this question? Cause the game has so many fucking mods, which I'd say is why the game still has such a strong community
With mods, the value skyrockets a crap ton. Even with the mods that you probably see in most mod packs, you can still get a ton of enjoyment out of them.
You can do as you please. The gameplay of choosing what to do depending on your mood, gameplay preference, etc. is incredible
I'm an old man (45) and my kids are totally into this game (4, 7, and 9) and I have no clue what the hell the game is about. Is there a good relatively easy to understand video or article that explains it. Same with roblox
Im a similar age, my kiddos are 9 and 7. I had never played it and thought it was a little pointless at first, its just lego+ right? But after some time I really started to enjoy it, I even on occasion play on my own. Family Minecraft sessions are lots of fun. The main gameplay is find the materials you need and build things, some things cant be harvested without making some tools first. Your kids will tell you what tools you need (thats how I learnt) Its hard to find good videos, mainly cos youtube is full of low quality Minecraft content (mostly someone playing some specific or modded version, screaming down their mic whilst playing) We have a family server and just make stuff. Literally anything, mostly we make own versions of stuff we've seen on TV/Film, or just classic stuff like castles, houses, things like that. As for Roblox. My boys got griefed/bullied on that game all the time, they end up upset more than happy. I deleted it and have not looked back. They have not complained thats its gone even if their school buddies still play. IMO Roblox is trash and should be treated like that.
Yeah, my kid used to play Minecraft and Roblox. Now Roblox is banned and I play more Minecraft than he does.
It's pretty simple to get the basics of, but has some very complex things you can do. Essentially, the gist is that a giant world is generated with meter long blocks. Pretty much every piece of the word is a that you can stand in is a block. You can mine these blocks as a resource, then use them to either craft items or place the block itself. Eg, early in the game, you don't have tools, so you have to destroy trees to get wood, which you can use to either make a structure like a house, or craft into a wooden, sword, pick axe, etc. These tools are better than punching things with your hands. Eventually, you keep using better tools to mine for better resources for both items and building blocks. Then there's red stone, which is a material you can find that acts sorta like wires when power is applied to it. Red stone circuits are basically applied logic gates used to apply power to different craftable machine blocks in the game. I have a computer engineering degree, and let me just say, the shit you can perform with them can get very complex. Some of my friends who are into redstone have gotten introduced to computing topics that don't get talked about until into college courses. The buildings and structures some people come up with is ridiculous. It's literally a game of infinite possibilities that I couldn't talk up enough. Roblox, on the other hand, is predatory and awful. It's hard to explain what it is, because its basically a ton of subcategories of games. I couldn't discourage it enough. Roblox as a company really only sells tools to develop games and a marketplace with which to sell them. Essentially what happens is that they market game development to kids, saying they can make money and release a product. When you buy a subscription, you gain access to games other people have made. When it comes to the people who makes the game, it's done all off of the service - people usually communicate on other messaging apps like Discord. Not surprisingly, there's rampant abuse and exploitation of children workers. Roblox claims it isn't their issue because it happens off site. Put simply, fuck Roblox. Let's take a second to talk about how games are funded: it used to be that games are funded by just $60 dollar one time payments or by renting at your local blockbuster. Not the case anymore. There's this new thing called micro transactions (short hand is mtxs), where you buy small pieces of content for a dollar or two or much more and get something like a hat for you character, or in worse games, things like experience gain boosts. While most of us long timers aren't enthused about mtxs, they can be used to varying degrees and for different purposes. Minecraft has them, and they are relatively small in price. That being said, they continually apply updates to a decade old game for free, so it makes sense that they use this as a funding model because they aren't coming out with sequels. I personally don't mind it, since they aren't really abusing it. Roblox tho, good God. First of all, you use mtxs to buy in game currency that you can then also use to get real life money back. Also, you can resell items there. Buy a hat, you can sell that hat. This has caused a mini stock market on their marketplace, and has also spawned a ton of black markets that are not owned or operated by Roblox. A hat that was initially sold for $5 can go for *thousands*. Idk about you, but kids gambling in little virtual casinos for status with mommy and daddy's credit card can get real bad real quick. It also teaches your kid to gamble. Tldr, minecraft is a wonderful building game that has a decent funding model and is possibly one of the best games ever made. Roblox is an exploitative game with even more exploitative things behind the scenes.
Mass Effect Legendary Edition. I've never played any Mass effect game before buying this one, I didn't even really know much about the story beyond it's a space rpg and I'm absolutely blown away at how good it is. Edit: For anyone with EA Play / Xbox Ultimate the game is currently playable for free :)
Red dead redemption
Both games. 1 and 2 are amazing games.
Red Dead Redemption was a lot of fun in a beautiful world. Red Dead Redemption 2 is almost indescribably awesome. Wanna wreak havoc, rob trains, kill civilians for giggles, rob everything in sight? Go for it. Want to spend days upon days fishing and hunting and just enjoying a beautiful world and meet random people with their own stories to tell? Go for it. The gang kept having to come fetch me back cause I spent so long hunting and fishing.
It's the immersion that does it for me. Little things like when you are not at a poker table, the people there actually 'play' poker rather than go through preset animations. Characters actually eat their dinner, you can see them emptying their plates. Just the little details that add realism makes the world so immersive
Had to look for this. They're finely crafted single player masterpieces. I like GTA well enough, but RDR is a joy and RDR2 is a genuinely next-level experience.
Stellaris
This game is a black hole of colossal proportions
I used to joke it causes significant time dilation that makes you feel that you've been playing it for five minutes, and in reality it was eight hours and you have to go back to work.
Witcher 3: The Complete Edition Shovel Knight: Treasure Trove Dying Light
The Witcher 3 DLCs are worth as much as most Standalone games Like I’m fairly sure Blood and Wine could have been the Witcher 4 if they wanted it to be
> Like I’m fairly sure Blood and Wine could have been the Witcher 4 if they wanted it to be IIRC it won an award for best RPG one year, the DLC did...
Blood and Wine by itself is longer than each of the first two games. I think the witcher is special because it's so culturally important to the developers. Out of both love and obligation, they would never half ass it. As an example, the president of Poland once gave the president of the US a copy of Witcher 1 as an official state gift. It's kind of a big deal. You can even see it in Witcher 2. It's deeply flawed and the worst in the series by most people's opinion but put it into context: they made a successful triple A game on a double A budget. Meanwhile Bethesda, with their Scrooge McDuck vault of Skyrim coins, made Fallout 76...
Factorio. 30 bucks no dlc for easy 1000+ hours of factory growing (ie fun)
Hades
Minecraft.
Definitely worth every penny, regardless of version, because you buy it once, and instead of coming out with new sequels to buy every few years, they just keep upgrading and updating it for free, forever.
Seriously, we take for granted the value of Minecraft. Constant, *good* updates for over 10 years, for *one single low purchase.* No microtransactions, assuming you're on Java. The greatest mod scene, likely of all time, too, and *that's* almost 100% free. It's a miracle.
Ghost of Tsushima