Play indie games. There are still a lot of fun games out there. AAA games are all "live services" nowadays and designed to maximize your play time, not fun.
Yeah, it's a golden age for indie development. I struggle to find AAA games I want to play, but when it comes to games as a whole I have far too many I want to check out thanks to the current vibrancy of the indie scene.
Absolutely. This is how I discovered games like Hollow Knight and Spiritfarer, two of my absolute favorites. Can't bring myself to play very many AAA games outside of some multiplayer ones like Mario Party and Mario Kart.
People are going to be pedantic about this one, because it’s not ALL games, but what you’re seeing is real. Game design, especially corporate design, has changed to accomplish two things:
Engagement
Accessibility
Games are designed to be playable by as many people as possible for as long as possible. Some would say this is just Western AAA games, but lots of anime games have been doing this nonsense for decades - games with 10 hours of baby’s first JRPG tutorial and 80 hours of grinding and filler. Many of them critically acclaimed games that fans would flog me for if I actually named one of them.
There are indie games that help you escape this, but many take that accessibility-first approach that requires everything to be very structured and corral you toward the right direction.
Again, I think people are going to be dismissive, but you’re right. It’s a tough world out there for someone who just wants to play a game and not be suckered into a live service engagement trap, or ladder system that hides your real MMR to keep you grinding up an imaginary points system. It’s not like the old days when you can just pick something popular, you have to discriminate and carefully judge what you buy now.
I should put “accessibility” in sarcastic quotation marks. Here, it doesn’t mean adding options or features to assist someone with different handicaps or needs. It means making the game so easy that anyone, even a toddler or game journalist, can finish it without having to learn from mistakes or think about what they’re doing.
Particularly with regard to excessive guidance. Varying degrees of “mobile game that makes you click exactly what it says for 30 minutes to prove you played the tutorial.” Those games may be the worst offenders, but less-dramatic hand holding happens in console and PC games too.
That's a sweeping generalization, there are many indie games that are hard, obtuse, hostile or all of the above. Even a walking sim's difficulty is higher than just "beating" it, just like the point of a museum is higher than going through all the rooms and saying you "went"
I played SimCity 2000 before I understood how taxes worked. All I knew playing it was that if I lowered them, the game played cheering sounds and booed me if I raised them. I had no money and my cities failed, but the people were happy, ostensibly. I guess I'm saying that SC2000 radicalized me.
It's not "just you", but it's simply burnout from the genres you play these days. A lot of people experience it from time to time. Either stop playing for a while, or expand your scope to different genres. Not only are some amazing indies coming out all the time, but you'll also find incredible older games that way.
If mods are allowed, Stardew Valley. Heck, even if mods aren't allowed. I've probably put nearly 600h into it between PC and Switch, so if I'm playing one game exclusively, I'm going to design the best damn farm I can!
What types of games are you playing? Sounds like you are describing a generic AAA "live service" game, there are plenty of fun games but you have to search for them in a sea of soulless corporate cashgrabs. I would recommend trying games by smaller developers. If you want to play with friends I would recommend indie co-op games like risk of rain 2 or deep rock galactic. Or maybe you are just burnt out on gaming? Never hurts to take a break, try another hobby for a bit and come back reinvigorated
Live service games, MMOs, gatcha games, and many hardcore multiplayer games are the worst for this. They love to waste player's time on some repetitive grind because they want players to keep playing their game. They usually have either microtransactions (often for cosmetics) or a subscription.
Personally, I love MMOs, but I try to avoid playing any grindy content (or at least as long as I don't think I'll genuinely enjoy it). So I'll usually play a game for a few months (they're really big games) and then quit for years, if not permanently (I have a bunch of MMOs I intend to someday return to, but have not yet).
Single player games are generally much better at being genuinely fun. Especially story driven games. I also love open world games because you largely get to make them your own. It's perfectly valid to beeline the story missions if that's all you care about. Or you could do just the side quests. Or you could additionally explore like crazy. e.g., with Tears of the Kingdom, you really can ignore most of the shrines and largely focus on the story quests. None of the side quests are necessary, either. You don't have to explore the depths except for a tiny few places for the story. The vast majority of sky islands can be ignored. But I personally had a lot of fun exploring, so I explored nearly everything and loved it (except most of the depths -- they were way too big, empty, and repetitive).
Some people don't like long games, though. And that's fine! There's tons of short or more streamlined games out there that you can have fun with. e.g., The Last of Us is a fantastic one. The sequel is about 24 hours long for the story and it felt like it flew by in the blink of an eye for me cause I was having so much fun.
Was going to say this as well. As a long time destiny player it very much feels like checking boxes or doing chores each week.
I've finally managed to break away and play other games and am so excited for my current to do pile. Mass Effect 1,2,3 done, Andromeda is in progress and after that is Control, Cyberpunk and Fallout 4.
It’s not you. I don’t find most games, even games I used to really splunk a lot of time into happily, much fun anymore.
I’ve been watching Yahtzee’s Extra Punctuation lately, and he his hitting on the same gestalt - most games, especially AAA games, are really boring now because they are really pretty much the same game repainted now. OK, that’s a bit of an oversimiplification, but I’d direct you to his several recent commentaries for the deeper insight.
I can remember when I loved the idea of playing online. After a couple of decades of it, I hate online games now (mostly because I despise online game players now). I still love playing a good co-op game with a couple of friends (but those good games in that class are a bit thin on the ground) and I still love finding a good, immersive single player to sit down with. But I don’t care for platformers, or side-scrollers, or jumper-puzzles, or Souls games - at least not anymore.
So what am I playing? Well, I am getting a hell of a lot of bang out of my buck playing small games on my iPad from Apple Arcade, believe it or not. I fire up Steam once in a while and look, chin in hand, at my large library of collected games on a fancy-pants Alienware monster gaming machine, sigh, and go back to playing Spell Struck (basically a Scrabble game) on my iPad, because at least it makes me think of good words to use.
Ten years ago, I would be jittery with the impending release of something like Starfield or Diablo IV. Now I’m like “No rush, buy it in 6 months or a year when it goes on sale and the bugs are ironed out.”
Ok, not so much as hidden, but also not super known: Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun. A tactical stealth game (think commandos saga back in the day) is 90% Technobabylon. A pixelated point & click adventure with some cyberpunk themes at 70% Return of the Obra Dinn. Probably the best detective/deduction game that I’ve played, at 40% Prey. One of the best immersive sims, at 75% The Case of the Golden Idol. Is not as good as Obra Dinn in my opinion, but it’s super good none the less, at 30% Antichamber. Super good puzzle game, at 75% The Age of Decadence. Ultra hardcore RPG set in ancient Rome, 60% Tametsi. Is like minesweeper but good, 67% (and only 0.77€)
Absolute gem of a game, shame Bethesda forced them to use the Prey branding; a lot of fans of the original wrote it off because it has nothing to do with the original. One can't help but wonder if we would've had such a disaster as Redfall if Colantonio hadn't left as a result of all that.
Underrated even among Prey fans is Mooncrash, easily the best roguelite experience from a AAA studio, and just a great experience all around for anyone who wants 'more Prey'.
A Hat in Time: 50% off at £12. A really cute 3D platformer.
Wobbledogs: 40% off at £10. Looks and plays like a pet simulator but is almost more about genetics and seeing what kind of bizarre "dogs" you can create.
Let's Build a Zoo: 45% £9. I've seen this described as similar to a Bullfrog game (think Theme Hospital) and that's good way to put it. It's a zoo simulator, but full of silly humour and things you can do, like butcher your animals for meat. A big feature of the game is breeding, including crossbreeding animals to create hybrids like a snake/pig monster.
Sherlock Holmes vs Jack the Ripper: 80% at £2. It's an old game and the dating shows, and nor is it a brilliant masterpiece of writing (it's Sherlock investigating Jack the Ripper after all) but it does scratch the detective game itch. It's fun to explore London as it was in Sherlock's day, and it does provide its own theory as to who Jack the Ripper was, as well as laying out the events in a way that are much easier to follow than reading a book. I'd recommend it for true crime and mystery fans and I look forward to the other games in the series.
Death’s Door 19.5€ → 7.8€ It’s a very cozy game but still fun mechanics and adventurous. Kinda similar to Hyperpixel in feels. Spent 3 days while sick playing from the sofa, enjoyed every bit.
If you like old time puzzle games, and have a pinch for programming, then you will love this. In this game you control bots by creating algorithms to extract data and other challenges. The cool part is you must study the game language and learn the lore from manuals and magazines that the game provides.
Summer 1996, Today is the day! You hit the road. Adventure. Freedom. Escape. Run. Flee the Regime. Try to survive.
On this risky road trip to the border, you’ll meet incredible characters, and discover their intertwined stories and secrets in an ever-evolving adventure. But every mile opens up a choice to make. Your decisions will change your adventure, change the people you meet, maybe even change the world.
It's worth noting that EXAPUNKS is substantially easier than Shenzhen I/O. I actually preferred it though because experimenting with different strategies to increase speed was more fun to me than, say, beating my head against kelp harvesting robot.
My play order so far as been Elden Ring -> Sekiro -> Bloodborne -> currently playing DS1 remaster.
DS1 is definitely my least favorite so far, although it's not bad. Much much slower, and the challenge is in slogging through the levels with less challenging boss fights than later entries.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/632360/Risk_of_Rain_2/ - 50% 12.49€ 96% positive
Action rogue lite hero 3rd person shooter thingy - My absolute favourite game in recent memory.
Not sure if this counts as hidden but many fans of the genre don't know it ¯_(ツ)_/¯
Insanely good soundtrack, cool artstyle, creative characters with very diverse abilities and gameplay, plenty of enemies and bosses, hidden features, locations, items, bosses, c̴͕͎͚̗̥̀̃̓h̴̘̯̎͗ȧ̶͕̤̪̦̺̂̕r̷͚͑̔͒̃͝a̵̖̩̣̍̂̈́̎̿c̷̱͓̪͖̈́ṫ̵̯̈͂̚e̷̺͓̙̥͆̓ŗ̷̢̻̺̞͠s̸̩̍̍̀?̴̼̘̱̗̯̈̋̄
You know how some rogue lites make sure items stop stacking so they don't break the run?
Yeah that's not one of these. Go nuts, break the game, fly through the map, just to get too cocky and lose it all in the blink of an eye.
The original Risk of Rain is also a banger, currently 80% off at 1.99€. Same concept but 2D sidescroller with pixel graphics. Incredibly sweet game.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/550320/art_of_rally/ - 45% 13.74€ 92% positive
Challenging game with arcadey look and sim-ish feel.
Beautiful visuals and a chill soundtrack. Great for white knuckled time attack or hours of zen drifting in freeroam.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/422970/Devil_Daggers/ - 50% 3.99€ 96% positive
Highscore based retro arena shooter bullet hell kinda deal. PSX era 3D look, one weapon with two modes, surprisingly interesting movement (think b-hops, rocket jumps).
Every run is mostly identical. Enemies always spawn at specific times, but in random locations of the claustrophobic empty map. The longer you survive, the higher the score.
Also fantastic sound design!
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1743850/HYPER_DEMON/ - 33% 8.36€ 95% positive
Sequel to Devil Daggers. Turns everything to 11. Complete fever dream. Adds an absolutely psychotic rear view mechanic, where close enemies outside your FOV appear mirrored in red colour on your screen.
Adds several movement and combat mechanics, while still keeping the weapon very simple.
Different score system while keeping the timed spawns. Killing in rapid succession increases your score, just scraping by drops it over time.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/553310/Lethal_League_Blaze/ - 35% 12.99€ 97% positive
Projectile Fighting Game with saturday morning cartoon style 3D visuals. There's a ball in the middle, whoever touched it last "owns" it. If you get hit by the ball, you take damage. If you hit it back, you own it and it speeds up. And you build special meter for absurd special moves.
Turns into a mind melting firework of on screen effects the faster the ball gets.
Has a decent campaign to learn the game and fight bots. Bangin soundtrack
Up to 4 players, local and online play.
The original, Lethal League is also on sale for like 5.99€. Fully 2D visuals, also very charming. iirc slightly lower health and no campaign.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/94400/Nidhogg/ - 60% 3.99€ 90% positive
If you don't know Nidhogg go play Nidhogg. Bring a friend.
Low-Fi 2D fighting game.
You can run, you can jump, you can duck, you can stab. 4 Maps to utterly cover in pixel blodd.
That's about it.
It opens up more the better you get, but just go play it, folks.
Win against your buddies by getting through 3 screens in a tug-o-war kind of system and prove your worth by sacrificing yourself to the Nidhogg.
Tournament mode available. Nidhogg 2 is also on sale for 5.99€ 81% positive at like 800 reviews.
They got budget for graphics that time which.. they used.
Different weapons add a rock paper scissors dynamic to the game, everything else is mostly the same! Good stuff.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1285670/Post_Void/ - 20% 2.39€ 97% positive
A wild ride of a psychedelci action rogue like? No meta progression from what I could tell, which is why I'd be hesitant to call it a rogue lite.
Basically run based randomly generated doom while your ego melts away after a heroic dose of psychoactives.
Health literally runs out (of the head you carry) over time. Kill to heal, don't get hit.
DO NOT TOUCH IF YOU HAVE EXPERIENCED PHOTOSENSITIVE EPILEPSY BEFORE.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/517710/Redout_Enhanced_Edition/ - 75% 4.99€ 87% positive
The quintessential zero-G racer for PC.
Very similar to the classics like Wipeout, but innovating on the formula. You'll need a controller!
Left stick steers as you'd expect, right stick points the nose of your racer to compensate for tight turns and to prevent blackout / redout during high-G maneuvers.
A classic campaign mode lets you unlock several classes of racers, two handsfull of upgrades let you adjust how you play.
Sweet thumpin soundtrack Online play supports up to 12 players though I'd be a bit surprised if you find that many on the servers :D
Split Screen mode available!
The Sequel Redout 2 is also on sale at 14.99€ but it has even fewer reviews, fans of the games seem to favour it for longer tracks, deeper customization and improved gameplay. I haven't tried it yet though.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/268130/Heat_Signature/ - 50% 6.49€ 94% positive
If Hotline Miami was set in space. And a rogue lite.
Pull off crazy heists aboard enemy ships to liberate the galaxy from authoritarian empires, each faction generally having some specializations when it comes to gadgets and tech which you get to unlock for your runs.
Can be frustrating at times but on the flipside a close save get so much more intense. Also you usually get several chances to save your skin - if you're captured you get thrown out an airlock and take control of your escape pod to fish your body out of hard vacuum.
Generally there are so many cool mechanics, I'm having a hard time to pick highlights.
I wanted to chime in and say that no one should sleep on Risk of Rain 2, it’s a fantastic game and easily worth the $12.49. Nice list you put together!
I was initially put off by the art style of Risk of Rain 2, but once I started playing I found that it gelled really well with the game. I'm really happy my friend convinced me to play it.
Andto parrot everyone else, the soundtrack is killer.
gaming
Newest
This magazine is from a federated server and may be incomplete. Browse more on the original instance.