I got High on Life over Christmas, which led me to getting a new (used) video card – RTX 3080.
Well, High on Life is a pretty small game and I’ve already finished it. I’m working my way through Portal RTX, but that will probably take another half hour or something. It’s beautiful, but I’ve gone through Portal a few times over the years.
So, I’m looking for a new game that will give my video card a workout.
I like shooters, but I really don’t like crafting. Open world is OK, but not much more open than say Mass Effect. Not so open that I can’t figure out what to do. I’m not interested in online play, just story mode. I use a keyboard and mouse, so games that were really optimized for controllers aren’t for me.
Someone recommended Red Dead Redemption 2, but apparently that game is beautiful but a slog – just slow going.
I have Doom Eternal, so I was thinking about playing that next anyway. The fighting and moving seem pretty tricky, though – my son was playing it and was having problems (and he’s a way, way better gamer than I am). I have the latest but one Wolfenstein game, so maybe I’ll try that – I got about halfway through, but it’s just so linear.
I really like GTA – I didn’t think it was that open world. I always knew what to do next, unlike, say, the Fallout game that I tried.
ETA: I also have MS Flight Simulator 2020, so I’ll reload that and just fool around with it for the beauty. I wonder how high I can make those settings with the 3080. Did I mention that I have a 3080?
I’d say Red Dead Redemption 2 is better than GTAIV and V, it is paced, but it is really enjoyable. Vistas and sunsets and scenery help a lot too.
Metro: Exodus is a sneak or shootathon which I think has a rendered gfx version. Doom Eternal is good too, I eventually stalled on one of the dlc because it required the weapon switch trick to beat, but full game was fine as a normal player. Deathloop is a lot of fun too.
Mass Effect isn’t open-world at all. It has large central hubs but all missions are loaded into their own instances.
On the other hand, GTA is the literal definition of an open-world game. So your issue has something to do with the way certain open-world games present and track objectives. I’m guessing it’s that Fallout doesn’t give you handy GPS aid on the minimap whereas GTA does?
If that’s the case, consider Cyberpunk 2077. Graphics heavy, fun gameplay, decent story.
Has Cyberpunk gotten patched for all its (major) issues? I heard there were a ton of bugs and glitches and such when the game first came out, but have they been fixed?
Yeah, that’s probably it. I have a terrible sense of direction in real life and it translates to video games, and I hate just wandering around in circles trying to figure out what to do.
One of the things that I didn’t like about High on Life was that there’s no map at all, so if you’re not on a mission and just trying to explore, you can get lost and not find your way back to the warp site. At least, I can and did. Yes, I’m that bad.
I will represent the alternative view. I got about 50 hours into it and felt like hardly anything had happened over the last 20, so I stopped.
I mean, it’s purely a matter of taste. For anyone who dug it, I’m glad you had fun and I won’t try to convince you that you didn’t. It’s just not for me.
(For what it’s worth, I’m a huge fan of Western movies, with a deep list of favorites from all eras. You might think this makes me a sucker for what RDR2 is doing, but no, just the opposite: I felt like its immersion in day-to-day minutiae and mythical deconstruction had already been well plumbed by dozens of “alternative” Westerns over the years, and I wondered if its contrariness would be more interesting and revolutionary for someone with more superficial familiarity with conventional Western tropes. Or maybe it’s just me.)
I didn’t actually finish it, but I didn’t regret my time in it.
Maybe keep an eye on when Ghost of Tsushima finally makes it to PC. It’s similar to RDR2 in that it has tons of gorgeous geography that you just want to wander through, but the storyline is much tighter and better composed.
Ghostwire: Tokyo is a pretty looking game. I haven’t played it but my friends who have enjoyed it.
I played a bajillion hours of Red Dead Online and it’s an exceptional looking game. Not recommending it for the OP since it’s completely “Do what you want, I guess” but I agree that the screenshots are beautiful.
RDR2 and Ghost of Tsushima are the only open-world games where I’d on occasion opt against fast travel because the scenery is so nice.
Even Horizon: Forbidden West on PS5 - which is certainly more technically ambitious and has stunning graphics - doesn’t capture the scope and beauty of those games.
Given the above, I’ll be slightly hesitant about Cyberpunk 2077. It is, on PC at least, fully playable, although it’s still a step up in bugginess from, say, Fallout 4 or Skyrim, and lacking in mods to fix some of it’s issues. Still, not a big thing.
But - the mapping / quest directions can still be problematic IMHO, and while somewhat more helpful than those of Fallout, aren’t the direct options mentioned for example in Mass Effect. And if you don’t do crafting, you are going to be out most of the BiS (Best in Slot) gear from the game. Still not a big issue, just a factor to keep in mind.
I’d probably give at least a thought to The Outer Worlds - it’s bigger than quite a few games, but much smaller than Fallout 4 or RDR2, it’s beautiful to look at, and while crafting is a thing, it’s pretty minimal. Plenty of combat, a hoot of a story, and it’s pretty much never -boring-. Still, some of the indoors segments -can- get confusing in layout (where you need to find, say three switches to flick in a multi story environment), but I doubt it would be a deal breaker.
Depending on how you feel about replaying levels repeatedly until you master them, Neon White might be interesting. It’s an FPS that’s focused on speed and sort of speed running. It’s a indie game so not very likely to give your PC a workout.
I second The Outer Worlds. Stunningly beautiful game with the setting cranked!
I would also say to check out The Division/Divison 2 if you like shooters, and cover shooters in particular. I have never liked cover shooters, but Division really nails the mechanic if you ask me. It won’t be much challenge for your GPU probably, but it is a nice looking game. One of my favorite and most played franchises.