What game should I get?

[danzibr]

So I just successfully defended my dissertation, and my wife wants to get me a game (I'm an easy man to please), along with the promise of her watching our kids so I can play said game ;)

Anyway, she pre-ordered me the upcoming Dragon Age: Inquisition. I played Dragon Age: Origins, and thought it was pretty good. I think I would indeed like the new Dragon Age game, but I'm wondering if there's something I'd like more (she said she wouldn't be offended if I wanted something else, btw).

I used to play a lot of games, but not much in the past few years. As for suggestions, please recommend recent games, preferably PS3 or WiiU.

I do like the Metal Gear Solid series, and noticed MGS5 recently came out/is coming out soon, but doesn't have great ratings.

I really liked Dragon's Dogma.

I also like JRPG's. And SRPG's. I'm just... out of the loop. I guess I would say my tastes have gravitated toward having control of a single person, with a lot of freedom, and no random battles (my youth was full of random battles, though; I don't mind them, just prefer the alternative).

Thanks!

[Winthur]

I can't help but recommend Wonderful 101 and Dragon's Crown if you want fun fast-paced action with some pretty visuals to go along.

Hitman Blood Money is now available on PS3 if you'd like a take on stealth different than MGS and if you like screwing around (it's as much a sandbox or puzzle game as it is an assassination game).

[Corlindale]

having control of a single person, with a lot of freedom, and no random battles

Dark Souls is an RPG for PS3 which has all of this. It's also thick with atmosphere and a very cool game in general. It's very difficult, though, but I've already gotten many, many hours of entertainment out of it despite not having progressed all that far.

Dark Souls 2 is also out but I haven't played that one yet.

[warty goblin]

S
I also like JRPG's. And SRPG's. I'm just... out of the loop. I guess I would say my tastes have gravitated toward having control of a single person, with a lot of freedom, and no random battles (my youth was full of random battles, though; I don't mind them, just prefer the alternative).

Thanks!

If you liked Dragon Age, you might quite enjoy Drakensang: The River of Time. It's very much the same sort of real-time pause party control RPG, but built on the excellent The Dark Eye ruleset. Personally I found the writing and story a lot more enjoyable as well; it's a fun adventure instead of sooper-serious worldsaving. And the graphics are just lovely. Not particularly demanding on the hardware mind, but just extremely well designed, colorful, and wonderfully evocative of the game's low-key and genial tone.

Otherwise, in terms of single character stuff, the obvious references are the Witcher games, and maybe Risen. The Witcher 1 and 2 are rather different in terms of gameplay, but still about controlling one guy (the Witcher) and feature some quite good writing, excellent art design, and pretty good gameplay. Of note, they are actually dark 'dark fantasy.' Which is to say they can be pretty grim in places, but nobody wears strange spikey outfits with skulls on. The first one also contains a fairly substantial number of oil paintings of semi-nude women.

Risen is a game in which you spend a lot of time grindingly poor. It's seriously the only RPG I've ever played where having enough gold was a worry instead of an inevitable naturally occurring monster by-product.

[Morbis Meh]

My suggestion: The Witcher 2 for PS3; this is a very adult RPG and not kid friendly (plenty of gritty violence, sex and other inappropriate content); however, it is a great story with fun gameplay (it can be pretty challenging and it has higher difficulty levels if you want it more challenging). It focuses on a single person and has no random battles (like you wanted) and has some replay ability. I caution against Dark Souls... I personally loathe the game, little to no story (my friends argue this point but there is absolutely no narrative present aside from the opening... they say you have to earn the plot which already makes it not worth playing) You aren't given quests per se (my friends were ***** and didn't tell me a guy was supposed to be a quest giver so I attacked and killed him). The combat is the only selling point of this game but that isn't saying much, it is pretty clunky and 100% unforgiving, it has a learning curve of a brick wall and if you are prone to raging this game is not worth your time. Another option is Skyrim if you don't have it, much more sandboxy focuses on a single character, no random battles and a somewhat decent plot (combat is fairly easy after a while depending on how you build the character)

[Zevox]

I also like JRPG's. And SRPG's.
Valkyria Chronicles is an excellent game in that vein. Japanese SRPG with a story set in a fictionalized version of World War 2, with rather unique gameplay for a SPRG, a unique visual style invoking an old storybook, and excellent writing in general. It's a PS3 game, and one of the best on that system.

Dark Souls is a good game for what it is - though I wouldn't call it an RPG myself, with there being little to no story. It's sort of an action game version of a dungeon crawler, and has a few mechanical similarities to Dragon's Dogma (though sadly not at all similar in how it deals with battles with large monsters). More difficult than most games to be sure, but I think the difficulty is blown out of proportion by most (I wouldn't even consider it the hardest game I've played this year). Then again, if you haven't played games in a while, it may well not be from your perspective - I'm coming to the game as someone who plays action games with somewhat similar mechanics on their higher difficulties, so I probably have an easier time than most.

The Witcher 2 is decent too, although I don't have as high an opinion of it as others here personally.

[Airk]

Tales of Xillia!

[danzibr]

Thanks for the suggestions all!

Right now Witcher looks best. Hmm. Any experience with MGS5?

Also, any ges where you can be an archer and snipe baddies from afar and take on huge monsters? That's what I liked most about Dragon's Dogma.

How about games which combine stealth and magic? And ganking baddies?

Oh, and I like zombies.

[Hiro Protagonest]

MGS Ground Zero is a full-price AAA title that's three hours long. Sure there are some side missions, but at most it's like, five hours.

It's apparently supposed to be hype for the "real" MGS game coming out later. Hype that rakes in tons of cash.

[Zevox]

Hmm. Any experience with MGS5?
No, but I should point out that the game you're referring to is not actually MGS5. It's a (reportedly very) short prequel game to the main one, which is coming out later. Its gotten a lot of criticism primarily due to its small size for its price point making many people consider it a blatant cash grab that should've just been the first stage of the main game.

On the Metal Gear note though, one I can't believe I forgot to mention before given your apparent interest in that series is Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance. It's an absolutely fantastic action game. I can't speak to how it connects to the rest of the series, since I've only played MGS3 and remember very little of it, but the gameplay is great, the soundtrack is amazing, the story has some very good moments to it, and everything about it is in general just over-the-top fun. If you like action games, I'd highly recommend it.

[Winthur]

How about games which combine stealth and magic? And ganking baddies?

Dishonored, maybe? It's certainly better than that atrocious Thief reboot.

Seconding MGR Revengeance.

[danzibr]

Metal Gear Rising. Loved that one.

I did a bit more searching, and I think Beyond: Two Souls looks good (I liked Heavy Rain a lot), and The Last of Us. Any opinions there?

[Winthur]

The Last of Us. Any opinions there?

In my humble opinion, The Last Of Us was trying to be too artsy, like a cinematic experience, and as a result everything else suffered. All the reviews of this game seemed to be based off the supposedly amazing mature storyline, but it wasn't anything special - zombies are honestly overused in video games by now, and the story doesn't pull anything new to the stale subgenre. And the gameplay is... mediocre. Action sequences are generic; there's stealth, which... isn't worth mentioning; the game is paced so that you're basically walking from cutscene to cutscene a lot of times; and there's a ton of times where instead of getting into action you're just moving around boxes, ladders, containers and watching cutscenes. It has very little in terms of replayability, because it pretty much has you go through corridors.

It got great ratings, but I have no trust in what websites and e-celebs have to say, and I honestly think its ratings are overblown, based on the perceived maturity and the cinematic quality of the game.

So no, I'd not pick it as my first choice.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Uhhhh... well, if you liked Heavy Rain, Beyond Two Souls is probably something you'll like (I've never actually seen any Heavy Rain gameplay).

The Last Of Us is supposedly a really good story. But the gameplay is not great, and it's also not made like a David Cage game. You should probably just watch the Walking Dead if you want to see events unfold without getting too stressed about choices, or play Telltale's Walking Dead game if you want to have those choices.

[warty goblin]

Dishonored, maybe? It's certainly better than that atrocious Thief reboot.

Seconding MGR Revengeance.
If you're gonna do action-magic games developed by Arkane, play Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. The storyline may be terrible, but at least you won't have to spend nearly as long listening to it. Plus you get to kick people. Off cliffs, into spikes, into each other. Into each other off cliffs. You can also stab them, or kick them then stab them.

Metal Gear Rising. Loved that one.

I did a bit more searching, and I think Beyond: Two Souls looks good (I liked Heavy Rain a lot), and The Last of Us. Any opinions there?

Everything I've heard about Beyond: Two Souls suggests it is pretty much entirely horrible. Even from people who liked Heavy Rain.

And if you'e into actiony kinds of things, I don't think you can really go wrong with the new Tomb Raider. It's easily the best game I played last year.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Everything I've heard about Beyond: Two Souls suggests it is pretty much entirely horrible. Even from people who liked Heavy Rain.

You and I move in different gamer circles.

[Winthur]

If you're gonna do action-magic games developed by Arkane, play Dark Messiah of Might and Magic. The storyline may be terrible, but at least you won't have to spend nearly as long listening to it. Plus you get to kick people. Off cliffs, into spikes, into each other. Into each other off cliffs. You can also stab them, or kick them then stab them.

Seconding Dark Messiah. I merely forgot about its existence/didn't think it was new enough to warrant recommending.

[houlio]

How about games which combine stealth and magic? And ganking baddies?

Oh, and I like zombies.

It has already been mentioned, but Dishonored has both of these. Everyone I know who has played it enjoyed it a good deal too.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Mark of the Ninja has stealth and magic and ganking baddies. But stealth is more necessary while Dishonored is more like "I could stealth, or I could kill everyone". Also the magic part isn't apparent until late in the game, but I'd say that 360 vision and other super-abilities count as magic. I'd also say story is better than Dishonored.

[warty goblin]

You and I move in different gamer circles.
I don't move in gamer circles. I read Quarter to Three. Tom Chick is the only game critic I find really interesting or worth paying attention to, even if I don't always agree with him.


Seconding Dark Messiah. I merely forgot about its existence/didn't think it was new enough to warrant recommending.

It is a mite on the aged side. Although I fired it up again a while ago, and it still holds up pretty well. The textures look kinda cruddy up close, but getting your sword-blender on remains as excellent as ever.

[ObadiahtheSlim]

Another +1 for Dishonored. It's got solid gameplay mechanics and a wonderful story. It's even better when you are familiar with English honor culture.