With a long weekend ahead of me and no big plans beyond one picnic I thought I might get some solid game time in. I then realized I’m not quite sure what to choose. I have plenty of never played games in my library but I kinda want to go for something I know and love.
Length does not matter to me. On my short list is:
Terraria or Starbound (always seems like the same game to me)
Oxygen Not Included (kinda leaning that way)
Hitman III (I have them all linked so 1, 2 & 3 are now one big game and a new DLC landed which I got automagically)
Witcher 3 run (again but always fun)
Civilization V or VI run (everyone keeps telling me 6 is better but I still love 5 more…with all DLC)
Any opinions or other ideas? Those certainly are not the end-all/be-all of lists. I love Oxygen Not Included (sucha brilliant game) but it starts easy and then gets tough. Do I want to brain that hard on a weekend?
Again…no need to stick to that list. Looking for any opinion. All are welcome. I like almost all sorts of PC games (almost).
Apart from helping me decide I figured this is a good opportunity for people to promote an “older” game (read more than a year old) that gamers here should consider re-visiting.
I’ve been enjoying a lot of indie titles in recent years. Here’s some of my favorites along with some titles from bigger titles:
Baba is You is probably my favorite puzzle game of all time, and I’m a big fan of puzzle games.
Return of the Obra Dinn is the closest thing to playing as a real detective in a game
Anything by Supergiant Games (Bastion, Transistor, Pyre, Hades). The story, character and music are great in all four games, and the gameplay is a different style in each game.
Celeste for fans of precision platformers and good stories. Has good accessibility options if you’re not great at these types of games.
Crypt of the Necrodancer for fans of rhytm games and roguelikes
Hollow Knight or either of the two Ori games for fans of Metroidvania
Prey (2017) for fans of Immersive Sims in the style of System Shock, Thief, Deus Ex
Tales from the Borderlands. I’m not a fan of the Borderlands games or Telltale games in general, but this one had great humor. Well worth trying even if you’ve never played another Borderlands game.
Genshin Impact. As a F2P Gacha game this doesn’t fit the style of my other recommendations, and I put off trying it for the longest time. When I finally tried it, I found one of the best open world exploration games I’ve ever played with amazing art and music. You can play it fully for free, but the Gacha nature is extremely predatory, so gambling addicts beware.
I started that but only barely. I’ve been meaning to give that one a go.
Hollow Knight just ain’t my bag. Nutso platformers drive me nuts (but I like some more easy ones like Psychonauts). VVVVVV makes me sweat. Ori is cool though. I’ve been meaning to try that one.
Prey is like System Shock/Deus Ex/Thief or in the same league? Way worth a look!
Witcher 3 is getting a next gen upgrade with improved visuals and such later this year (more realistically probably spring of next year). So you may want to wait for that.
Dishonored series. I managed to miss them when first out but loved them when got around to them. It’s in effect a much better Thief with magic, ie: a medieval set multi path sneakathon. More like the classic Thief which were good, than the last one released.
I’d also say Prey, and add that Prey: Mooncrash, the dlc, is in effect a different game in the same universe, and when I finished the dlc, I just started from the beginning again. I was unwilling to leave the universe yet.
Replayed Prey at least four times too. Sneak, or Blitz (later with more powers), or pull enemies into turret traps. Float in space.
These days, I’ve been playing the snot out of Borderlands 3: while I’m not a huge FPS fan, something about this one just works for me. The art style is idiosyncratic, but I love it. The humor is crude and ultraviolent, but so cartoonish that it’s fine. Battles get really chaotic and I often can’t figure out what exactly the hell is happening, but they’re real pretty, and things eventually calm down.
Have you tried Valheim? They’re dropping a new update on September 16, and it’s a gorgeous game.
Rimworld is a lot like ONI and is worth a try if you want to scratch that itch a different way. It’s got a lot more combat than ONI, but not nearly so much attention to infrastructure systems (there’s only electricity, not electricity/plumbing/gas); and it’s got special events that are pretty cool. I’ve put a ton of hours into it.
Google some “rimworld vs. Dwarf Fortress” stuff. I’ve played about 10 minutes of DF, and decided it was too ugly and confusing for me to spend any more time on. Rimworld is pretty complex, no doubt, but nothing like DF, from what I’ve read. And there are some fun stories that develop out of the whole thing. You get pets that you can name and train and bond with, and when a horde of rabid chinchillas sweeps across your map and kills your pet warg, it’s a real tearjerker of a moment, especially if your pyromaniac character chooses that moment to flip their shit and start burning everything down, or another character develops a corpse fascination and plunks a bandit corpse in the middle of the dining table.
The graphics aren’t gorgeous, but they’re reasonably good, and after awhile things start to become intuitive.
I’ve been stuck playing State of Decay 2 for a couple years now. Is it the best game ever? No, probably not. But I can’t stop playing it. I might take a month or so off to play something else, but I keep going back to it. And they just did a huge update last week so there’s a ton more shit to explore, loot to find, and zombies to kill. I’m at over 3000 hrs now…
Motorsport Manager is really, really good. Even if you’re not into F1 it is incredibly addictive and takes up huge swaths of time.
If you ARE into F1 you can download a mod which updates it with all of the current F1, F2, and F3 teams and drivers (Fantasy Fire 2021). It also makes the game play much more realistic and challenging.