Oh sick, I didn’t realize Deathloop was first-person (I assumed it was over the shoulder 3rd-person like Max Payne & Control).
I almost mentioned Control in my post because it did have great environmental design that felt like a cross between Aperture and The X-Files. I’ll stick Deathloop on the wishlist, thanks for the recommendation!
Shit, and it comes with the first two games for $4?? Purchased and downloaded. Thanks for the suggestion!
Thanks for the really thoughtful comment! You make all three sound extremely intriguing.
I was unaware that any of the Halo games had much of a story at all! I’ve always just imagined them as the present incarnation of Unreal Tournament, i.e. built primarily for competitive multiplayer. I’d have expected the art direction to be, uh, perfunctory. Shame on me.
The thing that I dislike about metroidvanias, which is that I get hopelessly disoriented, could indeed work in favor of a horror game. I’m very interested in this one now, and as a fortysomething gamer I love the idea of a Gameboy title.
I picked up Frostpunk during the Epic giveaway but haven’t dived in yet. Thank you for the specific description—it’ll make it easier to go in with the proper expectation for suspense!
Well you just bloody sold me on DOOM 3, adding it to the wishlist immediately
I’ve started Black Mesa but haven’t finished it yet. What I’ve played has been fucking impressive.
Valve is sort of the best at what I’m asking about—all of their games have the greatest touches that make the settings feel like existing locations you’ve walked into. It’s what makes me wish they published more.
The insane detail that goes into aging Aperture throughout the second half of Portal 2, the way it starts in the 40s or 50s at the very bottom and has a distinct “era” for each level as you get closer to the surface, including Cave’s progressing illness . . . it’s such good storytelling, and it’s literally just window dressing for the already-great main plot.
Not a Skyrim modder, I take it
An extremely patient gamer, I see ;)
I was 16 when Goldeneye released. The immersion of those locations was off the charts for the time. I’m not sure I played another game that gave me that uncanny feeling of being somewhere else until HL2.
I actually have SoC & CoP in my backlog. I tried SoC once, but admittedly didn’t give it the time it deserved.
Gameplay-wise, would you recommend playing CoP before SoC, since Pripyat is newer, or is it best to play SoC first for the story?
This is me watching my SO use any video editing software, or anything at all from Adobe.
Blood and Wine is worth playing for the soundtrack alone
I feel like I’m guilty of this within the Borderlands series – I love all the things about 2 that OG fans seemed to dislike, namely Anthony Burch’s writing and the weapons spread, and I actually think 3 is pretty respectable as a shooter; it’s a lot of fun to play, it’s just a weak sequel to 2. The things that fans seem to love about The Pre-Sequel (the ice and the butt slams and the new player characters) left me cold, and I think the first game pales in comparison to the second.
boring gameplay even on extreme difficulty but the world is so beautiful, and I love just driving around the map with no HUD.
Hey, this is basically Skyrim and I’ve got 2k+ happy hours in that
I think the peaceful vs chaotic option in Dishonored can make sinking into it a little less straightforward than the others, kind of like Deus Ex – except Deus Ex is a more complete espionage experience than Dishonored, where non-violence is sort of just a roleplay choice.
I say go high chaos, even if it feels like the game de-incentivizes it, and just enjoy it as a shooter experience. If you decide you want to do a sneak playthrough afterwards, you still can.
Sweet, I’ll keep an eye out for that DLC. I have the rest of it in my backlog (I think), but having been waiting for the whole thing to actually play it.
I also just recently got back into first person games, after growing up with OG Doom, Hexen, Quake etc.
Some recs that I really enjoyed:
Dying Light – the best of the parkour-style shooters I’ve played, including Mirror’s Edge. Great melee too.
Doom '16 is a great, really satisfying shooter that I recommend, but Doom Eternal is a whole other beast; I’d compare it more to Thumper, which is an intense rhythm game a la Guitar Hero. It’s stressful and I haven’t completely finished it, but it is an experience.
Dishonored 1&2 are both outstanding stealth FPS, with a painterly art style that stays looking up to date. Adds some superhuman powers to the shooter formula.
Prey '17 – also by Arkane, Bioshock-like, spiritual sequel to the Dishonored games.
Borderlands 2 – great guns, great villain, and so many memes that it probably feels like a reddit time capsule at this point. Mechanically it’s missing some 2023 stuff like crouch sliding, but it is outrageously smooth gaming with the most enjoyable spread of enemy types in any game that I’ve played.
Is this a new Long Dark DLC? Have they made progress on the game?
3 plays great on my PC. I made the mistake of playing 5 first, so I found the graphics & mechanics a little underwhelming (I thought 5 looked pretty great). But the game is good; the villain seems to be the series’ fan favorite.
4 might is the sweet spot between 3’s gameplay and 5’s graphics. 5 is gorgeous, but it’s gameplay is a tad more kid-friendly than 3 and 4. And I love 4’s James Bond villain.
deleted by creator
My impression is that Sega’s always been pretty chill & receptive to interest in respectful revivals of classic IP.
It’s been nice to watch a large company respond to that interest with more accessibility, and not less (Nintendo).
Wow, hadn’t heard of this. It looks great, thank you!