Returnal, Resident Evil REmakes, most Giant Bomb games, Firewatch, Hellblade…
If you liked Alan Wake, definitely give the RE remakes and Hellblade a shot, and don’t sleep on Firewatch. In fact, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice is probably one of the most thoughtful and atmospheric experiences in gaming (at least in the field of 3rd person, pseudo action games).
I second Resident Evil games. But, they have multiple ends that require replay the games or a large portion of them. You can watch the endings on YouTube though. But iirc, RE VII, has a whole different portion of game influenced by a choice you make, than make you replay that whole part and it can be long.
Yup! The GMs are a lot more active recently, adding things to the game continuously. And now there’s regular scheduled events where the GMs push stories and interaction to a level we haven’t seen in a decade.
Oh wow that’s sick! I may have to get back in to it.
When I was playing it was still in beta and I was in Jr. High. I only quit because when they started charging money I couldn’t afford it and my parents certainly weren’t paying for it.
As an adult now I can totally afford it but I’m not sure my lifestyle allows me the time for it any more.
I was a healer named Hashak. Probably won’t ring a bell, but 🤷🏻♂️
The game went to no monthly fees a long time ago. They only charge for new accounts and characters. If you have an old account you can just log in and play. There’s a player run news and link site here, that has a link to ‘Clieunk’, a client for modern macs and news since 2001. Though we haven’t always been the best at sending in news.
You can even get an item in Elden Ring called the Twiggy Cracked Tear about a third of the way through that lets your Physick flask grant the same effects as a Sacrificial Twig for 3 minutes. Once you get that, the stress of losing Runes can be greatly diminished.
Simply drink it prior to crossing a fog wall or at a difficult point on the path to Rune retrieval.
If that’s not enough, and you’re on PC, you can download a simple mod off Nexus which eliminates Rune loss on death entirely.
I’ve enjoyed the occasional season in Diablo 3 (and I’ve taken years long beaks), and I do enjoy leveling up just for the sake of trying new things, but while I play a lot I’m still pretty casual. Every three months seems a pretty quick cadence to have to start new characters. My highest character is only level 60 I and I haven’t even seen tier IV yet. I’m going to spend all my time chasing after rewards that I have no time to enjoy. Not the battle pass stuff - I’m just talking about trouncing the endgame with massively overpowered characters, which is really what I’ve played Diablo for since the first one was released.
I generally only play seasonal to enjoy the new mechanics, but 3 months makes it feel more like a job than fun. Obviously I’ll give it a chance and see how it goes - maybe it won’t be as bad as I fear. Anyone else? Is this just me? Is someone afraid they’d get bored with 6 month seasons?
This whole list just feels like a needless attempt to judge games stories by the standards of older types of art.
Different forms of media require different storytelling conciets to best fit them, films, TV, novels, comics, etc all have different techniques or shortcuts to play to their limits, why should games be any different. They have to present an interactive element to the player alongside their story and that will require conciets to get to those points.
Gaming is its own art form and a relatively new one in the grand scheme of things. Let it develop its own language rather than judging it by the past.
“Awesome story” is always going to imply “for its medium.” You’d never compare the story in “The Strawberry Roan” to “The Telltale Heart,” or Telltale to “David Copperfield.” There’s a story painted on the Sistine Chapel, but it’s character development is abominable compared with “Pride and Prejudice.”
You can’t tell a story in a game without the player’s participation. If the game has a plot, the writers have to force the player into actions that advance the plot. If the game has character development, the character may have to make choices the player wouldn’t. OP’s right that games do have more tendency to rely on ex machina solutions, or have narrative/character inconsistencies. I mean, how many times will you gleefully murder legions of minions, only to have an agonizing dialog over whether to spare their super-villain overlord? But people like the mechanic of going full murder hobo, and you’ve got to balance fun mechanics with philosophical interludes. Or vice versa.
The alternative is a completely freeform simulation, where every NPC has some scripted responses to every possible player action. That’s two complete stories based on whether the player chooses not/to murder his boss’s boss, another where he agrees to, but then betrays his boss instead… And what if he overthrows the assassin lord after/before he meets the mages’ guild? That kind of ‘choices matter’ game has been a dream as long as RPGs have been around, and you just can’t do it. It’s what sets tabletop RPGs apart from computers.
Whoa. It’s like I’m seeing clearly for the first time in my life. You’ve opened my eyes and I will now immediately stop enjoying things because you, for some reason, feel so weirdly insecure about your own tastes that you felt the need to write, like, 25 paragraphs (that I absolutely did not read) seeking validation from internet strangers.
I’m really excited for the first season, especially that they’ll start us with the altars and map cleared. That’s always annoying to do on a new playthrough. Now I just need to get my current character to tier 3 and finish hunting down the rest of the altars.
Guild Wars, especially for the PvP mode. I loved the visual feeling of the game, it felt sharper and less cartoony than a WoW.
Some classes were kind of novel too at the time.
And the feature I loved was the limited skillset you had to chose : you could be lvl 20 (max) and know 30 spells but you could only pick 5 in your active bar. It made for so many interesting builds and combinations !
Aaah, that game really left a hole in my heart that was never really filled again. Build crafting during school, playing in the evenings – those were the days. I also loved how the game forced team play much more than other MMORPG’s. And then there’s the lore, the beautiful zones… Truly pretty close to perfect!
I have to agree with you there. The music, the scenery, the plot, just the general aesthetic of the game was incredible. It created an experience in play. I can’t tell you how many times I restarted characters and classes to play through in a slightly different experience. I still pick it up and play occasionally, even though I’m the only one from my guild who has logged in for the past 3 years, it’s nice to just see and experience the game again.
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