Fallout: New Vegas. Wait now, don’t laugh at me. I’m painfully aware it was built on an engine that just does not cooperate and crashes regularly. BUT, the gameplay itself, the roleplaying, the fights (yes I do like VATS), and the choices by god the choices. So many choices with so many consequences, telltale wishes they were this cool. The only thing for me that’s holding this game back is 1) the rickety engine it’s attempting to balance on, and 2) unfinished quest lines. The devs for this game had so many brilliant ideas that never made it on screen, I don’t know if they shot themselves in the foot, or if the deadlines were unrealistic. Even though some of the main quests between the warring factions feel lopsided, and some interesting things seem to go to a dead-end, the game never felt unfinished to me. There was so much to do and try, I never felt cheated by the game in narrative. Instead, I just want more because it was awesome how interactive the world was. It responded to my decisions and made a unique playthrough because of my decisions, I don’t believe the predecessors even come close to this. Sure 3 and 4 kept similar mechanics, but the game didn’t react to your choices. If I had one wish it would be to see Fallout New Vegas as the devs intended, with every plot line completed and polished, I’d even continue to play it on its rickety system. Though this would need to be a magical wish because there’s no way that engine could handle the work needed, and converting this content to a new engine would be very expensive (so I’m told). I know she’s not perfect, but goddamn she has the potential to be.
Outer Wilds. By it’s very nature, the game splits itself into 20 minute blocks.
You don’t make ‘materialistic progress’, but you’ll almost always make progress in the game; the progress you make is finding out new information. Yes, it starts over every time, but you aren’t losing progress. It’s also just, in general, an excellent game.
I found this game a little hard to get into personally since it seems to tell you very little of what to do in some areas. I do need to pick it up and try again soon though
Second The Outer Wilds. Anything you can do in the game can be accomplished in more or less 20 minuets. There is meta progression in the form of a ship log that keeps track of each run’s exploration and important information. You’ll probably end up wanting to binge it though to figure out the narrative.
BSN is the unofficial fan forum for BioWare related content these days. I quite like it. Rarely, someone from BioWare drops in and leaves a comment so BioWare does monitor what fans are saying.
I wish more game reviews touched on stuff like this. Thanks! I’m in a bit of a spot financially, so can’t take advantage of current Steam sale, but I’m definitely planning on getting 2077 since the new revamp.
At this point if you haven’t played yet I might wait for the DLC to come out–it’s apparently making fairly substantial changes to the entire game’s (including base game’s) systems and gameplay. It won’t change everything the OP highlighted, but will supposedly address a lot of the gameplay, stat/cybernetic management, and further AI changes or fixes. I played earlier this year and despite some persisting flaws would still recommend it, but if half of what is alleged about the DLC changes are true (and that’s still an if until it actually releases) the game will be in an even better place then.
I just started playing it last night, and I guess I’d so far wish I’d been told just two simple things.
It’s still pretty stiff and janky. The post on Reddit a while back that said they “fixed” it was being generous
There won’t be an overarching plot for at least an hour into the game, maybe more, so be patient (?)
Point (1) isn’t that it’s unplayable at all, it’s running pretty decently. But there have been times where I’ve completely lost my immersion because the NPC does something absolutely physics breaking. The most comical example was where my friend (forgot his name) walked through a series of lockers and caused them to explode open and dump their contents into the room! Took me out of the moment but was still somewhat hilarious
For point (2), I’m still waiting to see what my motivation is. I’ve done the intro and the tutorials, and the first mission, and I still don’t see where the game is going. What is my end goal? What am I building up towards? Or will I just perform contract jobs the rest of the game and that’s the whole loop.
Hades. I don’t think I’ve come across a game so carefully paced as Hades, both plot-wise and in the gradual introduction of game mechanics. Which is bloody impressive considering that it’s a roguelite.
I want to point out the obvious choice by recommending Minecraft. It is very easy to proficient, acquiring in game materials is all you do. Play sessions can be as long as you want since it is a open sandbox and you can add as much depth as you want via mods.
You might want to look specifically at rogue ‘lites’ which tend to have some form of upgrade system outside of the main gameplay loop. In Hades for example, you pick up certain items during a run which you can use to upgrade your character after you die. Other ones that spring to mind are Dead Cells, Slay the Spire, Monster Train and Rogue Legacy. All of these have generally quite short sessions and each run lets you improve your character for subsequent runs.
Survivor games which are very similar to roguelites can also be an option. Vampire Survivors being the big one. Runs are up to 30 minutes long with permanent unlocks in the form of characters and new power ups or boosts.
I find Townscaper really relaxing, there’s no objective, just a toy to make cute looking towns. Haven’t tested it on steam deck tho.
If you like building/puzzles there’s Shapez (this one I tried on steam deck and it might take some time to get used to the controls), it’s like factorio but abstract and without resource management, you just make machines that modify and combine shapes to create new ones, it get’s progressively complicated, if it’s your thing you’ll find it quite addicting so be mindfull of that.
Both FAR games Lone Sails and Changing Tides: Puzzle platformer with a story told just with the environment, I recommend playing both one after the other in order
SteamWorld Heist: Tactical RPG in a side 2D perspective with ricochet. I haven’t played much of this one but it’s very cool
Gris: an interesting platformer with really nice looking animation
A Short Hike: A cute adventure game about exploration
Oxenfree: An interesting graphic adventure with a cool story
Night In The Woods: Platformer adventure with an interesting story and great characters
I love Townscaper! I find it relaxing and satisfying! Once you’ve made a town you can even export the 3D model to use in any 3D program. I don’t have a 3D printer but I thought it’d be cool to use it to build a town and print it!
Also, you can share towns with just a code… This is a little one I’ve worked on for a bit here and there, you can just copy this code and then click “Load from Clipboard” in Townscaper:
Firstly, it’s fairly short, which I appreciate in a game that’s primarily story-driven. Secondly, the story is damn near perfect. When I got to the reveal towards the end I actually sobbed (quietly, in a manly way). No other game has ever affected me that way.
I think it movement to some sort of social media is pretty much inevitable. I don’t think I’ve ever played a game where the forums are more active than reddit/twitter.
Paradox still maintains their forum and advertises them but lots of their players still congregate in the game subreddits instead.
This is entirely silly. Specially when you consider they removed the flat structure at Valve recently. Also even when it was flat it was still structured as more important people’s opinions carried more weight. It made it feel like high school according to one developer where there was cliques and entourageous. That’s not anarchy.
Additionally Valve is not overall for Foss projects. Steam itself is still very closed and very restrictive. Proton was created to keep costs down and because Windows at one point threatened to enforce the windows store for outside apps. Potentially destroying steam.
Steam and Valve only contribute to open source as far as it benefits them. They are ex Microsoft employees that understand the embrace and extend side and are embracing Linux and it’s community. Extending wine. And potentially one day extinguishing the broad availability of Linux to replace it with steam os. You see this on their storefront already. Years ago when a game supported Linux on steam you’d see an icon of tux. Now you see an icon of steam os. A subtle reminder that Valve does not care about Linux but instead of being a thriving business.
Gabe is a capitalist. You don’t become a billionaire without abusing workers.
there was cliques and entourageous. That’s not anarchy.
Isn’t that basically one of the key features of anarchy? There may not be an official structure, but people are allowed to form groups and associate based on their values and goals. The fact that this ends up feeling like high school is a pretty big black mark against anarchy in my book.
Though a corporation being anarchist is kinda absurd.
“But one of the most interesting parts is how Half-Life: Alyx changed the studio’s view on development. Robin Walker is one of Valve’s most legendary designers, having worked on Team Fortress since the ’90s. In The Final Hours, Walker told Geoff Keighley — cheers to Ars Technica for spotting this first — how their historical flexibility didn’t always work out.
“We sort of had to collectively admit we were wrong on the premise that you will be happiest if you work on something you personally want to work on the most,” Walker said in the app’s fifth chapter, “Fixing Valve”.
Greg Coomer, who still works at Valve, said the company began “having a lot of cultural conversations about why we were unhappy”. “There were just too many things going on at the company to feel like we were healthy as an organisation.”
“We decided as a group that we would all be happier if we worked on a bigt thing, even if it’s not exactly what we wanted to work on,” Walker added.”
I’m not sure that’s the same thing as “removing the flat structure.”
It’s kinda cool, but this code is at least 20 years old lol. Aside from a programmer who might read it and go “huh this is neat” there is no value to this at all
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