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Kaptin Keen
2019-10-04, 06:22 AM
So .. there's all sorts of threads for old games. I started one myself, focussing on roguelikes. But realistically, there must be people out there, even in this day and age, who make non-retro, brand new, shiny games that aren't utter drek.

Right?

The latest actually new games I played, completed and liked are, sadly, Stellaris and Tyranny. Which is ironic, since I consider Paradox to be absolute villains (for their endless-expansions-money-cow business practice).

Can anyone do better, I wonder?

PraetorDragoon
2019-10-04, 06:51 AM
Hollow Knight is an amazing metroidvania.

Hunter Noventa
2019-10-04, 07:03 AM
Hollow Knight is an amazing metroidvania.

So is Bloodstained.

Battlefleet Gothic is a solid RTS with a solid campaign and fantastic visuals.

There are a lot of decent-looking indie games coming up like Dual Gear and Phantom Brigade.

danzibr
2019-10-04, 07:20 AM
Hollow Knight is an amazing metroidvania.
Oh dang. First game that comes to mind for me, and it’s the first comment.

Cosmic Star Heroine came out not too long ago, fun retro RPG.

Beyond that... haven’t been playing any new games.

warty goblin
2019-10-04, 08:28 AM
The end of this summer/beginning of fall has been packed with goodness.

Gears 5
I suppose in one sense this is sort of retro, because you don't level anything up, there's no randomly generated loot, and there's a list of like a dozen or so entirely delightfully varied and ridiculous guns. It's hella good though; like the best possible version of a game from 2007. Gorgeous, plays like a dream, is far smarter than a game featuring chainsaw bayoneting a dude in the groin has any right to be, and lays on interesting and spectacular setpiece fights with a degree of competence that makes it look easy.

Age of Wonders: Planetfall
This could also be considered borderline retro, in the sense that it's an update to a quite venerable series, but it does some reasonably bold things in its design. The tactical combat is better than ever, but the strategy map's mechanic of annexing sectors is really excellent. At a stroke this unpacks cities extremely well, makes borders between different empires fairly sensible, and gives you something worth fighting over. Really the only downside is a slightly over-repetitive early game, but by midgame things often get very weird.

Also you can have a fight between Communist space dwarves and violently hostile sexbots. People who said this game has no flavor apparently lack taste buds.


The Surge 2 I don't actually like Soulslike games, and some of my traditional complaints still stand; i.e. resting respawning all the non-boss enemies is deeply immersion breaking. However the combat is excellent as a sort of power-armor fueled techno-Homeric ballet of hyper-carnage, and somebody clearly had a think about the health system and did something interesting. Hitting dudes builds energy, which can be used to charge up a healing device, so your primary form of recuperation is actually jabbing people in the ribs with unpleasantly sharp things. Then somebody tied this to the loot system, since you only get specific loot by targeting and chopping off specific body parts, which draws from the same energy reserve as charging your healing thing. Want that guy's helmet? Better chop his head off. This also adds a delightful bit of risk/reward to the combat, since you can kill a dude faster by targeting an unarmored bodypart, but chopping of a helmetless head won't net you as much cool stuff.

factotum
2019-10-04, 09:32 AM
Regarding Paradox, when it comes to scummy business practices, they're a *long* way better than the likes of EA and Activision!

As for new, good, non-retro games, I hear good things about Subnautica, although I won't actually be playing it until the weekend so I can't give you my personal opinion until then. I've also put a *lot* of hours into Grim Dawn, which I don't consider "retro" but I definitely think is worth playing.

Yora
2019-10-04, 09:37 AM
I had a lot of fun with Sekiro and Metro Exodus this year, and before that Dark Souls 3. Which is over 3 years old by now.

Drasius
2019-10-04, 10:46 AM
Battletech is very solid, though despite being originally a kickstarter project developed by the original Battletech guys who started it 30 odd years ago, it was swallowed up by Paradox last year, so if you don't want another Paradox game, you won't be getting you giant robot action here.

Factorio is one of the highest rated games on steam for a reason. I don't really know how to describe it, but luckily for both of us, they're just crazy enough to have a downloadable demo for you to play. I highly recommend chaecking it out.

As already mentioned, Battlefleet Gothic is quite fun, both for the campaign and just tooling around in random battles.

Also as mentioned, Grim Dawn can be a nice diversion. If you liked Titan Quest, you'll probably like this.

Speaking of, if that's your jam or you ever enjoyed Diablo II, give Path of Exile a go. While the F2P nature might put some off, it got 95% of the polish of a AAA game at this point and is quite easily the leader in the ARPG genre.

Interplanetary is a niche little thing that involves building up you planet with various defences and weapons to then hurl your choice of railgun projectiles, missiles, MIRV's, Laser beams or asteroids at the other chumps foolish enough to have a habitable plant in the same solar system. Definitely something to check out.

Kerbal Space Program isn't new, but is certainly worth a mention for a quirky little one-more-turnlaunch time eater about space exploration.

Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor was pretty great, with lots of cool things to do and see, a very nice combat system and a neat roster of ork captains with far more personality than they had any right to have for randomly generated NPC's.

Mount and Blade is another really solid niche piece with some seriously good combat and a fun little army building system.

Pillars of Eternity is probably something right up your ally if you liked Tyranny. Story is OK, but the real strength is in the interesting characters IMHO, though a couple of them do have lacklustre endings to their personal quests (YES, I'M LOOKING AT YOU, EDER!).

They are Billions is a sort of odd mix of tower defence and limited RTS ... thing that can be quite addictive.

Vermintide: The End Times / Vermintide 2 are some very solid co-op fun in the warhammer fantasy universe. The gameplay is surprisingly solid, and the maps are interesting and varied but the real thing that sticks with you are the characters and their banter.

If we're allowed to mention console crossovers, then both Valkyria Chronicles and Final Fantasy 15 are excellent additions to your library.

warty goblin
2019-10-04, 10:46 AM
As for new, good, non-retro games, I hear good things about Subnautica, although I won't actually be playing it until the weekend so I can't give you my personal opinion until then. I've also put a *lot* of hours into Grim Dawn, which I don't consider "retro" but I definitely think is worth playing.

Subnautica is a good survival crafting game. It's still very much a survival crafting game. Since crafting is about my least favorite game subsystem ever, even giving it a delicious and attractive wrapper did not help.

Narkis
2019-10-04, 12:18 PM
I loved Pathfinder: Kingmaker. The last games I liked before that were Darkest Dungeon, Shadowrun and Witcher 3. But how many years back do we go before games stop counting as "new"?

Rynjin
2019-10-04, 12:34 PM
Borderlands 3 is good, for a very recent release.

I picked up Noita (https://noitagame.com/) last night, and it's...interesting. Early Access, but solid. It's like a mix of a Rogue-like dungeon delver with that powder physics game you played in the school's computer lab.

Sony has been pumping out amazing games. God of War's reboot and the Spider-Man game are games that absolutely live up to the hype; most refreshing game experiences I've had in a while.

Aeson
2019-10-04, 12:45 PM
How recent is 'new?' Just released this year? Within the past 5 years? Something else?

Regardless, for relatively recently released titles that I've played and enjoyed, Rule the Waves and its sequel are enjoyable build-your-own-navy quasi-historical wargames, Transport Fever's pretty decent if you're into tycoon-type games and Dominions 5 does the megalomaniacal world conquest thing pretty well.

Kaptin Keen
2019-10-04, 02:21 PM
So is Bloodstained.

Battlefleet Gothic is a solid RTS with a solid campaign and fantastic visuals.

There are a lot of decent-looking indie games coming up like Dual Gear and Phantom Brigade.

I've been considering Battlefleet Gothic. It's just that I'm fairly crap at keeping track of things in RTS's.

I like indie games, I'll check out those two.


Oh dang. First game that comes to mind for me, and it’s the first comment.

Cosmic Star Heroine came out not too long ago, fun retro RPG.

Beyond that... haven’t been playing any new games.

But .. retro might be new, be is designed to be old-like. It's cheating, for the purposes of this thread =)


The end of this summer/beginning of fall has been packed with goodness.

Gears 5
I suppose in one sense this is sort of retro, because you don't level anything up, there's no randomly generated loot, and there's a list of like a dozen or so entirely delightfully varied and ridiculous guns. It's hella good though; like the best possible version of a game from 2007. Gorgeous, plays like a dream, is far smarter than a game featuring chainsaw bayoneting a dude in the groin has any right to be, and lays on interesting and spectacular setpiece fights with a degree of competence that makes it look easy.

Age of Wonders: Planetfall
This could also be considered borderline retro, in the sense that it's an update to a quite venerable series, but it does some reasonably bold things in its design. The tactical combat is better than ever, but the strategy map's mechanic of annexing sectors is really excellent. At a stroke this unpacks cities extremely well, makes borders between different empires fairly sensible, and gives you something worth fighting over. Really the only downside is a slightly over-repetitive early game, but by midgame things often get very weird.

Also you can have a fight between Communist space dwarves and violently hostile sexbots. People who said this game has no flavor apparently lack taste buds.


The Surge 2 I don't actually like Soulslike games, and some of my traditional complaints still stand; i.e. resting respawning all the non-boss enemies is deeply immersion breaking. However the combat is excellent as a sort of power-armor fueled techno-Homeric ballet of hyper-carnage, and somebody clearly had a think about the health system and did something interesting. Hitting dudes builds energy, which can be used to charge up a healing device, so your primary form of recuperation is actually jabbing people in the ribs with unpleasantly sharp things. Then somebody tied this to the loot system, since you only get specific loot by targeting and chopping off specific body parts, which draws from the same energy reserve as charging your healing thing. Want that guy's helmet? Better chop his head off. This also adds a delightful bit of risk/reward to the combat, since you can kill a dude faster by targeting an unarmored bodypart, but chopping of a helmetless head won't net you as much cool stuff.

Never played any of the Gears games. Maybe I should have, but it feels weird to get on board with the 5th game in the series.

I want Planetfall at some point, it looks neat. Surge, being a Souls-like, is .. unlikely to be any good for me, I'm too old for reaction based gameplay =)


Regarding Paradox, when it comes to scummy business practices, they're a *long* way better than the likes of EA and Activision!

As for new, good, non-retro games, I hear good things about Subnautica, although I won't actually be playing it until the weekend so I can't give you my personal opinion until then. I've also put a *lot* of hours into Grim Dawn, which I don't consider "retro" but I definitely think is worth playing.

Well - EA and Activision I'd never buy a product from, so their moral habitus is less relevant. Also, unlike those two, Paradox make excellent games. Then they fleece you.


I had a lot of fun with Sekiro and Metro Exodus this year, and before that Dark Souls 3. Which is over 3 years old by now.

I was playing the first Metro game, but ... then I got stuck, and lost interest. My save is in an irrecoverable mess, out of gas masks in the middle of nowhere being eaten by some giant monster.


Battletech is very solid, though despite being originally a kickstarter project developed by the original Battletech guys who started it 30 odd years ago, it was swallowed up by Paradox last year, so if you don't want another Paradox game, you won't be getting you giant robot action here.

Factorio is one of the highest rated games on steam for a reason. I don't really know how to describe it, but luckily for both of us, they're just crazy enough to have a downloadable demo for you to play. I highly recommend chaecking it out.

As already mentioned, Battlefleet Gothic is quite fun, both for the campaign and just tooling around in random battles.

Also as mentioned, Grim Dawn can be a nice diversion. If you liked Titan Quest, you'll probably like this.

Speaking of, if that's your jam or you ever enjoyed Diablo II, give Path of Exile a go. While the F2P nature might put some off, it got 95% of the polish of a AAA game at this point and is quite easily the leader in the ARPG genre.

Interplanetary is a niche little thing that involves building up you planet with various defences and weapons to then hurl your choice of railgun projectiles, missiles, MIRV's, Laser beams or asteroids at the other chumps foolish enough to have a habitable plant in the same solar system. Definitely something to check out.

Kerbal Space Program isn't new, but is certainly worth a mention for a quirky little one-more-turnlaunch time eater about space exploration.

Middle Earth: Shadows of Mordor was pretty great, with lots of cool things to do and see, a very nice combat system and a neat roster of ork captains with far more personality than they had any right to have for randomly generated NPC's.

Mount and Blade is another really solid niche piece with some seriously good combat and a fun little army building system.

Pillars of Eternity is probably something right up your ally if you liked Tyranny. Story is OK, but the real strength is in the interesting characters IMHO, though a couple of them do have lacklustre endings to their personal quests (YES, I'M LOOKING AT YOU, EDER!).

They are Billions is a sort of odd mix of tower defence and limited RTS ... thing that can be quite addictive.

Vermintide: The End Times / Vermintide 2 are some very solid co-op fun in the warhammer fantasy universe. The gameplay is surprisingly solid, and the maps are interesting and varied but the real thing that sticks with you are the characters and their banter.

If we're allowed to mention console crossovers, then both Valkyria Chronicles and Final Fantasy 15 are excellent additions to your library.


Final Fantasy hasn't worked for me, except FFIV. Valkyria Chronicles is something I've always been attracted to, but never having dared to try .. cause, I'm afraid it'll disappoint me. I might reconsider that.

Pillars of Eternity is another thing I was afraid of. I had to decide between that, and Divinity - and went with the latter, then never finished. Then bought Divinity 2, and never finished that either. Should have gotten PoE instead, I guess =)

Mount and Blade I know enough of to say the combat doesn't work for me. Vermintide is too pvp focussed - as above, I'm just too old. All the teenagers have better reactions speeds than me =) I will buy Billions eventually though. Tried Shadows of Mordor. Dunno, for some reason I suck at it. Badly so.

I looked at Interplanetary, and figured it would be a lot of fun - but also lose it's attraction quickly.

I have Battletech, though. I forgot about that one in my first post - considering buying the expansion. I think I would pick Rimworld over Factorio. Not that they're similar, but .. still =)


Subnautica is a good survival crafting game. It's still very much a survival crafting game. Since crafting is about my least favorite game subsystem ever, even giving it a delicious and attractive wrapper did not help.

Subnautica I have - but didn't finish.


I loved Pathfinder: Kingmaker. The last games I liked before that were Darkest Dungeon, Shadowrun and Witcher 3. But how many years back do we go before games stop counting as "new"?

Kingmaker I also have - but didn't finish.


Borderlands 3 is good, for a very recent release.

I picked up Noita (https://noitagame.com/) last night, and it's...interesting. Early Access, but solid. It's like a mix of a Rogue-like dungeon delver with that powder physics game you played in the school's computer lab.

Sony has been pumping out amazing games. God of War's reboot and the Spider-Man game are games that absolutely live up to the hype; most refreshing game experiences I've had in a while.

Borderlands is something I want to love, but .. don't. Maybe it's the old reaction speed thing, again. Maybe I should check out God of War, tho.


How recent is 'new?' Just released this year? Within the past 5 years? Something else?

Regardless, for relatively recently released titles that I've played and enjoyed, Rule the Waves and its sequel are enjoyable build-your-own-navy quasi-historical wargames, Transport Fever's pretty decent if you're into tycoon-type games and Dominions 5 does the megalomaniacal world conquest thing pretty well.

'Reasonably new' is fine. I considered Rule the Waves, but didn't bite.

I know Dominions 5 has a strong following, but the graphics don't really suit me.

But .. good tips all around. Thanks =)

Aeson
2019-10-04, 02:55 PM
'Reasonably new' is fine.
'Reasonably new' is ill-defined and subjective.

Hunter Noventa
2019-10-04, 02:58 PM
I've been considering Battlefleet Gothic. It's just that I'm fairly crap at keeping track of things in RTS's.


BFG doesn't have as much to keep track of as a traditional RTS like say, Starcraft. There's no base building or resource gathering. Your fleet persists between missions, and you do all your upgrades in between missions. It's also got a slowdown function, so you can reduce the gameplay speed and issue orders to your ships.

Lord Raziere
2019-10-04, 03:19 PM
I'll help out:

Dragon Ball Fighter Z
Sekiro Shadows Die Twice
Bloodstained Ritual of the Night
Code Vein
Crosscode
Cat Quests 1 and 2
Shantae Half Genie hero
Wandersong

really your asking a weird question, because its subjective what is or isn't awful, while "not awful" itself is a kind of a low bar question, since awful games aren't something you have some niggling little problem with they have big mechanical problems that make the game unplayable and thus generally aren't played at all, so anything not awful is technically anything well made enough that the mechanics of the game are fun. games are played because their mechanics provide a consistent interactive experience that people enjoy after all.

Kaptin Keen
2019-10-04, 03:48 PM
'Reasonably new' is ill-defined and subjective.

Anything you feel is 'reasonably new' is perfectly fine. It's not a test, there are no wrong answers. But there are plenty of threads for great classics.


BFG doesn't have as much to keep track of as a traditional RTS like say, Starcraft. There's no base building or resource gathering. Your fleet persists between missions, and you do all your upgrades in between missions. It's also got a slowdown function, so you can reduce the gameplay speed and issue orders to your ships.

Maybe I really should give it a try. Thanks =)

tonberrian
2019-10-04, 03:48 PM
Dragon Quest 11 is everything good about dragonvquest distilled into one game. And if you're going to get it, the Switch version is the way to go, as it has loads of content the other versions do not.

Magic_Hat
2019-10-04, 04:43 PM
Indivisible comes out in literally days. If nothing else, the visuals are amazing. I've also heard good thing about River City Girls. Haven't played it yet as I'm waiting for it to go on sale.

warty goblin
2019-10-04, 04:49 PM
Never played any of the Gears games. Maybe I should have, but it feels weird to get on board with the 5th game in the series.

I've only ever played Gears 1, and that was about 11 years ago*. I'm definitely missing some bits, but it's not that hard to pick up. There's aliens that look like discount Uruk-Hai. They are evil. You should kill them, with the helpfully provided set of ultra-violent weaponry. If you were willing to put up with the Windows store, you can get Gears 4 on PC there as well, which I think would fill in like 95% of the missing context in 5.

*I used to annoy my college roommate by playing it, and humming Amazing Grace every time I chainsaw bayoneted a dude. Later he had a nervous breakdown and left. I'm pretty sure these are unrelated incidents.


I want Planetfall at some point, it looks neat. Surge, being a Souls-like, is .. unlikely to be any good for me, I'm too old for reaction based gameplay =)
Planetfall is great. Not sure it's better than AoW 3, but AoW 3 is darn near perfect already, so a slightly different take o the same thing is just fine in my book.


Borderlands is something I want to love, but .. don't. Maybe it's the old reaction speed thing, again. Maybe I should check out God of War, tho.
Borderlands to me always felt like they had exactly one good idea - random guns - and strapped it into the most barebones and unambitious open world they could possibly get away with, along with an RPG system remarkable for achieving new heights of completely boring. I had fun with 2 until the random gun novelty wore off (oh look another revolver sniper rifle with like 3 shots) which left me with an endless slog through samey enemies in samey environments. There just wasn't enough actual meat on the bone.

Zevox
2019-10-04, 05:30 PM
The best new titles from this year that I've played have been Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Devil May Cry 5. Both wonderful examples of their genres and, in my opinion, the best overall titles in their respective series. Three Houses has much better writing and storytelling than any of its predecessors plus very good (if a bit easy for the series) gameplay, and Devil May Cry 5 is just a wonderfully put together action game with top-notch mechanics and presentation, and some just plain fun moments to see and experience. The final boss fight in particular is fantastic.

Last year had some real treats too. They've all been mentioned already, but three that exceeded my expectations were God of War, Dragon Quest 11, and Spider-Man. I never expected to be able to praise the writing in a God of War game, but I can absolutely do that with that one, and the gameplay's absolutely stellar too, noticeably different from but, IMO, better than its predecessors. Dragon Quest 11 is just a very solid traditional-style JRPG with a variety of very well-done small things that add up over time, and an actually surprising element to the story, particularly if you're expecting more standard fare for the series. And Spider-Man, well, it steals a lot from the Batman: Arkham games, but does it very well and doesn't wind up feeling like a cheap copy of them despite the obvious similarities, instead just learning how to do a good action-based superhero game from them. Rare example of an open-world game where I didn't feel like the open-world elements harmed the experience, either (I normally dislike those, often quite a bit, in case anyone didn't know already).

Last year provided me with three of my favorite games ever too - Dragon Ball FighterZ, BlazBlue: Cross Tag Battle, and Super Smash Brothers: Ultimate. I still keep coming back to those three as my go-tos for the genre, and expect to for quite some time at this point. Plenty of fun to be had with all of them.

Giggling Ghast
2019-10-04, 05:41 PM
Did anyone mention A Plague Tale: Innocence yet? It just came out this year.

Sermil
2019-10-04, 06:48 PM
So .. there's all sorts of threads for old games. I started one myself, focussing on roguelikes. But realistically, there must be people out there, even in this day and age, who make non-retro, brand new, shiny games that aren't utter drek.

Right?

The latest actually new games I played, completed and liked are, sadly, Stellaris and Tyranny. Which is ironic, since I consider Paradox to be absolute villains (for their endless-expansions-money-cow business practice).

Can anyone do better, I wonder?

Into the Breach. Also Into the Breach. Last but not least, Into the Breach

danzibr
2019-10-04, 07:23 PM
But .. retro might be new, be is designed to be old-like. It's cheating, for the purposes of this thread =)

Hehe, whoops, missed you even said non-retro in the OP. My bad.

Hrm. Alright, well you already addressed not being a FF fan. Right now I'm on FFX remaster. Maybe doesn't count since FFX is old, but the remaster was 6 years ago. FFX's combat system holds up really well.

Oh actually I do have a couple new games I've played. Nobody mentioned Zelda: Breath of the Wild. First Zelda truly of its kind. I overall enjoyed it. Exploration was a ton of fun (which it needed, seeing as the villain was kind of meh).

Also Star Control: Origins came out like last year. I put a lot of hours into that, really enjoyed it. Interest definitely piqued like 3/4 of the way through.

Beyond that... most of the stuff I play is either old or has already been mentioned.

Varen_Tai
2019-10-05, 12:35 AM
Speaking of, if that's your jam or you ever enjoyed Diablo II, give Path of Exile a go. While the F2P nature might put some off, it got 95% of the polish of a AAA game at this point and is quite easily the leader in the ARPG genre.

Ok, based off of this recommendation (because I loved Diablo 2), I downloaded all 18 gb of this game. I didn't get to do much before I had to head to bed, but it looks so... PIXELATED. Like, painfully so. Please tell me there's some graphics option to make it look more like a game in 2019 instead of 1999. Diablo 2 looks better. I turned the resolution up all the way and all the graphics still look super blocky.

Now, I'm still totally willing to give it a go, if for no other reason than that amazing looking universal skill tree. But I'd love better graphics if at all possible.

Any ideas?

Destro_Yersul
2019-10-05, 12:35 AM
I've been playing a game called Cliff Empire. It's pretty fun, if you like city builders.
The most recent Prey is brilliant, if you've not played that. So is the most recent Doom.
I'll second Factorio. I'd take it over Rimworld any day. Partly because I love factory building and supply-chain logistics, partly because I already have Dwarf Fortress.
Oh, and while it's not exactly new, Slime Rancher is both adorable and relaxing.

Kaptin Keen
2019-10-05, 12:52 AM
Borderlands to me always felt like they had exactly one good idea - random guns - and strapped it into the most barebones and unambitious open world they could possibly get away with

That's so funny, because I always felt Borderlands got exactly one thing right - a cool, outback, hot, sweaty frontier desert world .. and then tacked on a pointless grindy weapon progression system for no reason =)


Into the Breach. Also Into the Breach. Last but not least, Into the Breach

The breach is good, and I completed it .. but it's retro, and not really on topic here =)


Hehe, whoops, missed you even said non-retro in the OP. My bad.

Hrm. Alright, well you already addressed not being a FF fan. Right now I'm on FFX remaster. Maybe doesn't count since FFX is old, but the remaster was 6 years ago. FFX's combat system holds up really well.

Oh actually I do have a couple new games I've played. Nobody mentioned Zelda: Breath of the Wild. First Zelda truly of its kind. I overall enjoyed it. Exploration was a ton of fun (which it needed, seeing as the villain was kind of meh).

Also Star Control: Origins came out like last year. I put a lot of hours into that, really enjoyed it. Interest definitely piqued like 3/4 of the way through.

Beyond that... most of the stuff I play is either old or has already been mentioned.

I want to play Breath of the Wild. Yes. Star Control crashes on my machine (curses!!).


I've been playing a game called Cliff Empire. It's pretty fun, if you like city builders.
The most recent Prey is brilliant, if you've not played that. So is the most recent Doom.
I'll second Factorio. I'd take it over Rimworld any day. Partly because I love factory building and supply-chain logistics, partly because I already have Dwarf Fortress.
Oh, and while it's not exactly new, Slime Rancher is both adorable and relaxing.

I keep hearing good things about Slime Rancher, and it's bugging me, cause it looks .. silly. I played the original Prey, but sadly lost interest. Dunno why, really. Maybe I should pick it back up.

factotum
2019-10-05, 01:03 AM
That's so funny, because I always felt Borderlands got exactly one thing right - a cool, outback, hot, sweaty frontier desert world .. and then tacked on a pointless grindy weapon progression system for no reason =)


I dunno, I never felt Pandora made much sense. I mean, the idea is that the place was covered in oceans once upon a time, which is why it was colonised in the first place, but then those all went away for reasons--yet somehow both humans and native life still survive on what, to all intents and purposes, should be a dead world? As for the game itself, I always felt Borderlands 2 was too much of a retread of the first game but with the "bullet sponge" setting for enemies turned all the way up--when a brand new game feels like a really large DLC for an old one I think there's a bit of a problem.

I might get Borderlands 3 when it hits Steam purely because it's been a good while since I played a Borderlands game and thus I might be in the mood for it by then!

Destro_Yersul
2019-10-05, 01:22 AM
I keep hearing good things about Slime Rancher, and it's bugging me, cause it looks .. silly. I played the original Prey, but sadly lost interest. Dunno why, really. Maybe I should pick it back up.

Well, it is a bit silly. But it's also charming and fun. The slimes have such wonderful expressions.

The most recent Prey, as I understand it, has very little to do with the older ones. It was produced by Arkane, in a similar vein to Dishonoured.

Rynjin
2019-10-05, 01:37 AM
I dunno, I never felt Pandora made much sense. I mean, the idea is that the place was covered in oceans once upon a time, which is why it was colonised in the first place, but then those all went away for reasons--yet somehow both humans and native life still survive on what, to all intents and purposes, should be a dead world?

DEEPEST LORE is that Pandora goes through massive shifts when the season changes; these seasons lasting for decades at a time. Spring and Summer are dry, hot, and when all the dangerous creatures like Skags come out of hibernation. Fall and Winter make the place practically a paradise planet as all the dangerous wildlife slumbers, the water replenishes, and greenery grows rampant.

The games take place in the height of Pandoran Summer.

But the place was never colonized because it was nice (it was already Spring by the time Atlas got there), it was colonized because people thought there might be a Vault there. The Vaults are the source of pretty much every single piece of advanced technology in the setting, Eridian tech reverse-engineered by Atlas and then copied/modified by other companies, particularly Dahl (who were a huge reason for the colonization push).

Like I said in the other thread: Borderlands' plots are absurd and stupid. Its D E E P E S T L O R E is weirdly deep and complex and interesting.

It's a conundrum.


As for the game itself, I always felt Borderlands 2 was too much of a retread of the first game but with the "bullet sponge" setting for enemies turned all the way up--when a brand new game feels like a really large DLC for an old one I think there's a bit of a problem.

3 is a big step up; even on New Game+ a max level character can feel like they're making progress. Mayhem modes jack the enemy stats into the stratosphere, but they are now optional, and still not as stupid as the height of BL2's sponginess.

The game itself is a very good spin on the same formula; every character feels unique and interesting again, and I quite liked it. My only real gripe is the bosses kinda suck.

Rodin
2019-10-05, 05:16 AM
Well, it is a bit silly. But it's also charming and fun. The slimes have such wonderful expressions.

The most recent Prey, as I understand it, has very little to do with the older ones. It was produced by Arkane, in a similar vein to Dishonoured.

The new Prey is related in name only. They were working on a game as a new IP, realized it had similarities to the original Prey, and then realized that they actually had the rights to the name via Bethesda. So, they changed it to cash in on the name recognition.

I find this a bit odd since the original game isn't exactly well known. I guess some name recognition is better than none?

5crownik007
2019-10-05, 06:07 AM
Foxhole
I suppose you'd call it an MMO war economy simulator. As long as you have a few friends (or join a clan) it can be a lot of fun. It's not a dexterity based game, really the side which can run the most supplies wins.

Kerbal Space Program
Probably my favorite game. Launch rockets. Land hard. Do science. Do !!SCIENCE!!. It does have performance problems, but I deeply hope KSP2 fixes those problems.

I wouldn't exactly call these "new" but they're definitely not "old".

factotum
2019-10-05, 06:32 AM
DEEPEST LORE is that Pandora goes through massive shifts when the season changes; these seasons lasting for decades at a time. Spring and Summer are dry, hot, and when all the dangerous creatures like Skags come out of hibernation.
.
.
.
But the place was never colonized because it was nice (it was already Spring by the time Atlas got there), it was colonized because people thought there might be a Vault there. The Vaults are the source of pretty much every single piece of advanced technology in the setting, Eridian tech reverse-engineered by Atlas and then copied/modified by other companies, particularly Dahl (who were a huge reason for the colonization push).


But in "The Secret Armory of General Knoxx" there are large parts of the map that clearly had deep water there, so the planet must have been colonised during a "wet" period? And where does all that water go during spring and summer anyway?

warty goblin
2019-10-05, 09:08 AM
That's so funny, because I always felt Borderlands got exactly one thing right - a cool, outback, hot, sweaty frontier desert world .. and then tacked on a pointless grindy weapon progression system for no reason =)


The fun part of Borderlands' weapon system isn't viewing it as progression, but as diversity + surprise. Progression has a strong tendency to bore me because it reduces everything to a binary "is the number bigger" evaluation, which is particularly disappointing in a shooter because a well-made FPS combat sandbox allows for substantial creativity based on the environment and situation. Having a large diversity of guns, and the possibility that a new gun does something different, can (in theory at least) enrich the combat sandbox. Once I'd seen most of the diversity in gun characteristics that Borderlands could produce, all that was left was slightly bigger numbers, and endless boredom.

(Of course the inherent flaw in this was that BL2's combat sandbox was really pretty narrow. This is an inevitable result of welding on RPG mechanics, which require that a diverse range of builds be viable. A good combat sandbox by contrast requires exactly the opposite; i.e. severe punishment of choosing the wrong tool for the job, necessitating the ability to determine what the right tool is.)

The setting was fine, the implementation as an open world was, at least to my eyes, deeply deficient. There was no sense of life or spontaneity because there wasn't random events or much in the way of AI interacting with itself. Just the same dudes spawning in the same places endlessly. It's like Far Cry 2, except without the extreme nihilism and high potential for emergent chaos.

factotum
2019-10-05, 12:53 PM
So, Subnautica. Started playing it at 12:30pm and came off 20 minutes ago, 6 hours later. And I didn't come off because I was bored, but because it was getting late and I needed to make my tea! It could do with maybe explaining a few things better, especially the whole base building aspect of it--oh, and don't assume (as I did) that making Titanium into Titanium Ingots is a way of saving inventory space, because you can't actually turn the ingots back into Titanium once they've been made! Still, I'm having fun with it and I want to see where the plot goes.

Sermil
2019-10-05, 01:08 PM
I'm playing Super Mario Odyssey right now. If you're looking for a mindless platforming game, it's really good.

If you actually think about it, it makes absolutely no sense -- to the point where the game seems to be actively resisting making sense. But if you want some mindless platforming action, it's good.

Cikomyr
2019-10-05, 02:21 PM
So .. there's all sorts of threads for old games. I started one myself, focussing on roguelikes. But realistically, there must be people out there, even in this day and age, who make non-retro, brand new, shiny games that aren't utter drek.

Right?

The latest actually new games I played, completed and liked are, sadly, Stellaris and Tyranny. Which is ironic, since I consider Paradox to be absolute villains (for their endless-expansions-money-cow business practice).

Can anyone do better, I wonder?

Let me get this straight.

Your beef against Paradox is that they keep supporting their game for a very long time after initial release, and they keep adding and selling new content to improve the play experience, in most case without removing the initial content?

That's the source of your objection to the business model of Paradox? "We stick with our games for a long time"?

danzibr
2019-10-05, 02:28 PM
Star Control crashes on my machine (curses!!).
Oh noes!

Well, good news is it doesn't compare to SCII. Well, actually, easy comparison: SCII is way better. But if you walk in not expecting a game on the same level as SCII, you won't be disappointed. Or not as disappointed. Again, I truly enjoyed it.

Rynjin
2019-10-05, 02:56 PM
But in "The Secret Armory of General Knoxx" there are large parts of the map that clearly had deep water there, so the planet must have been colonised during a "wet" period? And where does all that water go during spring and summer anyway?

It evaporates? I dunno. They may have been there at the end of the season, I just remember a cutscene in the first game that refers to a huge sea change in the planet's climate and ecosystem not long after people show up.


Let me get this straight.

Your beef against Paradox is that they keep supporting their game for a very long time after initial release, and they keep adding and selling new content to improve the play experience, in most case without removing the initial content?

That's the source of your objection to the business model of Paradox? "We stick with our games for a long time"?


Most of the additional monetization is tiny niggling little nothing DLC that buries the useful stuff in a deluge of bull**** so they can tempt people into buying $300 bundles a couple of years later.

Cikomyr
2019-10-05, 03:15 PM
It evaporates? I dunno. They may have been there at the end of the season, I just remember a cutscene in the first game that refers to a huge sea change in the planet's climate and ecosystem not long after people show up.




Most of the additional monetization is tiny niggling little nothing DLC that buries the useful stuff in a deluge of bull**** so they can tempt people into buying $300 bundles a couple of years later.

And.. They force you to buy the superficial useless crap how?

I mean, I see these useless superficial DLCs like tipping. You can enjoy the full game experience without ever buys these.

Again, I hardly see what's objectionable about Paradox "let's make a long term commitment to our own games" compared to.. Fallout 76. Anthem. Mass Effect Andromeda.

Rynjin
2019-10-05, 03:46 PM
And.. They force you to buy the superficial useless crap how?

I mean, I see these useless superficial DLCs like tipping. You can enjoy the full game experience without ever buys these.

Again, I hardly see what's objectionable about Paradox "let's make a long term commitment to our own games" compared to.. Fallout 76. Anthem. Mass Effect Andromeda.

Because it buries other stuff, I literally stated that in my post.

They purposefully make it difficult to determine which DLC add meaningful content and which one do not.

It is not a 'long term commitment to the game' it is a long term commitment to essentially duping people into giving them money by exploiting a combination of FOMO, brand loyalty, and confusion.

Drasius
2019-10-05, 09:03 PM
Ok, based off of this recommendation (because I loved Diablo 2), I downloaded all 18 gb of this game. I didn't get to do much before I had to head to bed, but it looks so... PIXELATED. Like, painfully so. Please tell me there's some graphics option to make it look more like a game in 2019 instead of 1999. Diablo 2 looks better. I turned the resolution up all the way and all the graphics still look super blocky.

Now, I'm still totally willing to give it a go, if for no other reason than that amazing looking universal skill tree. But I'd love better graphics if at all possible.

Any ideas?

Turn off dynamic resolution is my guess. It's for people who bought a low end laptop in 2006 and refuse to upgrade and then complain that things don't run well, but it's tuned so that if you get even the slightest dip in framerate, out comes 600x480p mode. Hit Esc, Options, Scroll down to the bottom of the graphics tab and set Dynamic Resolution to Disabled. Adjust all the other stuff to suit your graphics card, but most mid-range or higher cards should be able to handle running everything at max or one level down.

If that doesn't solve your issue, well, then either you're playing it on a freaking huge TV-sized monitor or your standards are well above mine. To be fair, it was released in 2013 and has been using the same engine ever since, though it has been upgraded a billion times since then to the point where I honestly can't see why anyone would be complaining about it looking pixelated without some other problems.

If you still think it looks grainy, come back when 4.0 comes out in about a years time and the engine has gotten a major overhaul.

Let's see if this works, I just grabbed a screencap of my character in my hideout, let's see how pixelated this turns out:
https://i.imgur.com/4AdmIre.jpg

Razade
2019-10-05, 09:17 PM
Because it buries other stuff, I literally stated that in my post.

They purposefully make it difficult to determine which DLC add meaningful content and which one do not.

It is not a 'long term commitment to the game' it is a long term commitment to essentially duping people into giving them money by exploiting a combination of FOMO, brand loyalty, and confusion.

Along with all of this (also the not-useless DLC are priced absurdly and alter the game in deep and totally game changing ways as to make the game I bought like EU4 not a game I want to play in its current state) Paradox is just awful at giving tutorials. It's an objectively worse experience playing a game that doesn't tell you how to play it. It's even worse when the tutorial of the game, due to tons of DLC, doesn't actually tell you how to play the game because of all the changes to the mechanics.

Cikomyr
2019-10-05, 09:37 PM
Because it buries other stuff, I literally stated that in my post.

They purposefully make it difficult to determine which DLC add meaningful content and which one do not.

It is not a 'long term commitment to the game' it is a long term commitment to essentially duping people into giving them money by exploiting a combination of FOMO, brand loyalty, and confusion.

I am litteraly looking at the Stellaris steam page right now. All important expansions are at the top of the list with one recently released Story pack. All are priced 20+ dollars, as opposed to every other 7-10$ items tagged "pack" at the end.

It took me five second to figure out what's important and what's not.

Crusader Kings II is a bit murkier. But every *expansions* (which involves gameplay updates) are also clearly identified as such. Superficial stuff are tagged as Collection or Content Packs.

Also, Tyranny is not a game developped by Paradox. Paradox is merely the *publisher*, so their design philosophy is not really applicable. Putting games like Pillars of Eternity or Tyranny in the same bucket as Stellaris because they share a publisher is rather silly.

Rynjin
2019-10-05, 09:46 PM
Monetization is usually decided by the publisher.

This is why people blame EA for microtransactions in games and not, say, Bioware.

Kaptin Keen
2019-10-06, 02:32 AM
Let me get this straight.

Your beef against Paradox is that they keep supporting their game for a very long time after initial release, and they keep adding and selling new content to improve the play experience, in most case without removing the initial content?

That's the source of your objection to the business model of Paradox? "We stick with our games for a long time"?

No - how do you get that idea???

No, it's that they release half, or a quarter of a game, at full price .. then release the missing parts that should have been included from the start in bits and pieces .. at full price, no less.

Silfir
2019-10-06, 07:52 AM
I think the assumption for the pricing is that only the hardcore fans who are playing actively and regularly (and have thousands of hours of playing time accrued already) will buy an expansion on release, and rest of the crowd will stick with the base game and only occasionally pick up some DLC on a Steam sale, if it aligns with their interests. It's what I did, at least - I have about half of the expansions, and I'm waiting for Holy Fury to go on sale because it sounds interesting, but I'm never going to buy Rajas of India or Sunset Invasion or some of the other nonsense I'm not interested in.

Now, suppose you have no common sense whatsoever, and you're going to spend $300 on the complete edition of Crusader Kings II without buying at least the base game first to see if you enjoy it, and you don't possess the wherewithal to do so during a Steam sale, which would rop it to $75... You'd still be out far less money than the people with a gambling problem that get lured into spending upwards of ten thousand dollars on your average microtransaction nonsense. You want villains? There they are.

Kaptin Keen
2019-10-06, 08:11 AM
You want villains? There they are.

Your point seems to be that because others are worse, Paradox are ok? I do not subscribe to this point of view, sorry. Paradox are villains because their business practices are amoral - the fact that there are worse people out there relieves them of zero guilt.

Brother Oni
2019-10-06, 08:25 AM
Off a Youtube recommendation, my son and I started playing Dauntless, which is a free-to-play, more potato-computer-friendly version of Monster Hunter. So far, so fun, although I can see where they're pushing the microtransactions.

Other than that, you could wait until the Empyrean expansion drops for Warframe, which will have plenty of new shiny stuff to play with.

deuterio12
2019-10-06, 08:30 AM
No - how do you get that idea???

No, it's that they release half, or a quarter of a game, at full price .. then release the missing parts that should have been included from the start in bits and pieces .. at full price, no less.

What exactly makes you consider the initial Crusader Kings II only half/a quarter of a game?

It runs just fine and has plenty of stuff to do. Plenty of people loved it just the way it was when it came out.

Grif
2019-10-06, 08:44 AM
What exactly makes you consider the initial Crusader Kings II only half/a quarter of a game?

It runs just fine and has plenty of stuff to do. Plenty of people loved it just the way it was when it came out.

Both CK2 and EU4 were perfectly playable at launch, yeah. It's Stellaris where they dropped the ball hard, and as of patch 2.2, still a half-broken mess of unrealized ideas and potential.

To contribute to the topic, I'd say Opus Magnum is pretty much my nomination for those of you wanting a modern puzzle game.

Spore
2019-10-06, 11:04 AM
I really enjoyed Stories: The Path of Destinies.

It is a very simple adventure game that invites you to explore several different story lines. You basically decide your goal for each of four chapters and the resulting story decides the ending. The gameplay is tight, the story is in the foreground and it can be enjoyed in short bursts (a 4 chapter run takes about 20-30 minutes I think, less if you invest into dashing and run speed early). It is one of those games that doesn't take insanely long (any average Final Fantasy would have ended its prologue by the six hours I got our of it).

Sometimes the results can be cryptic - especially everything connected to the parts of the ancient artifact you decide to hunt - but I found it enjoyable that there is no real "moral high ground". You can't abandon the highly dangerous artifact because you're a smart cookie and know all the tropes because then the villain gets it. But relying only on the weapon is also ill advised. Do you trust your friends? Do you save the dubious allies (so they can betray you) or let them be (so they can backstab you later)? Do the rebel mystics know the solutions or are you better advised at improvising?

Cikomyr
2019-10-06, 12:05 PM
Both CK2 and EU4 were perfectly playable at launch, yeah. It's Stellaris where they dropped the ball hard, and as of patch 2.2, still a half-broken mess of unrealized ideas and potential.

To contribute to the topic, I'd say Opus Magnum is pretty much my nomination for those of you wanting a modern puzzle game.

I have sunk hundreds of hours in Stellaris 1.0 when it was released. Just because *you* didn't liked it doesn't qualify it as a "half/quarter of a game".

Edit: and if it's acknowledged EU4 and CK2 were good games right off the bat, then it's hardly a "Paradox-wide issue" isn't it?

houlio
2019-10-06, 12:31 PM
I have sunk hundreds of hours in Stellaris 1.0 when it was released. Just because *you* didn't liked it doesn't qualify it as a "half/quarter of a game".

I did likewise, but I think it's a pretty valid criticism of Stellaris that it took a lot of post-release work to fill it out. Stellaris at release had possibly the best every early game out of any space game, especially on your first few playthroughs. Eventually, you ran out of events and territory and the limits of the content in the game quickly became apparent.

I'd vote Factorio again, it's maybe the only crafting game I've played where the crafting is actually interesting.

I didn't see Night in the Woods mentioned, but I think it deserves one. It's one of the story heavy indie games that I didn't immediately bounce off of, and its story is pretty solid too.

I might have missed seeing Slay the Spire as well, but that's quite an excellent game for all sorts of reasons.

Cikomyr
2019-10-06, 01:23 PM
I did likewise, but I think it's a pretty valid criticism of Stellaris that it took a lot of post-release work to fill it out. Stellaris at release had possibly the best every early game out of any space game, especially on your first few playthroughs. Eventually, you ran out of events and territory and the limits of the content in the game quickly became apparent.


And yet, you know that Paradox will invest significant resources to keep improving the game. Making significant tweaks following their player feedback, and add a lot of new features with every expansion, making about 50% of these features payable.

Thats a model approach to game development and community management in my opinion. You have developers who keep making their game better, are open about upcoming features, make some of these features freely available and request money for some more.

You can never say that Paradox spent development time on a feature at the date of the game release that they will lock behind a paywall. They put everything they can into their game.

Silfir
2019-10-06, 04:15 PM
Your point seems to be that because others are worse, Paradox are ok? I do not subscribe to this point of view, sorry. Paradox are villains because their business practices are amoral - the fact that there are worse people out there relieves them of zero guilt.

Oh good grief, no, that's not my point. My point was in the first paragraph you elected not to quote or react to in any way at all.

The game goes on 75% sale something like eight times a year, every year, at least twice for two weeks at a time. That's on Steam; I'm going to assume it goes on sale on other platforms about equally as often. That's when everyone browses and buys the expansions they're potentially interested in. The full price is only ever paid shortly after release, typically by fans who've played so much CK II they've easily recouped their investment several times over already.

Anyway, both Crusader Kings II and Stellaris were complete games on release - I loved Crusader Kings II on release, played a full campaign from 1066-1453 and everything! The worst thing I can say about Stellaris is that wasn't very good, so they've decided to try to fix it ever since. It requires a bit of a conspiratorial stretch to assume that that was intentional from the start. Nobody sets out to develop awful games, they just turn out awful. Even Imperator: Rome, I'm going to assume, wasn't intended to require a massive overhaul to quell immediate and widespread discontent by the player base, and it's only right for Paradox to take flak for screwing up development.

Maybe they've gotten complacent, maybe some key people who knew how to design good strategy games are gone or asleep at the wheel, but a developer making games that don't quite live up to the example of their predecessors is a far cry from an evil developer.

Kaptin Keen
2019-10-07, 12:29 AM
What exactly makes you consider the initial Crusader Kings II only half/a quarter of a game?

I never played it. Nor EU. But I can find you a thousand quotes from people who disagree with you, if you like (no, I'm not going to do that).

Can we drop the Paradox discussion? I consider them villains, I don't ask you to agree. And this is not the thread for that discussion.


I really enjoyed Stories: The Path of Destinies.

I've completed Path of Destinies, and it's excellent. I'm less thrilled with the sequel, which lies in that giant pile of ok games I lost interest in and never finished.

deuterio12
2019-10-07, 12:50 AM
I never played it. Nor EU. But I can find you a thousand quotes from people who disagree with you, if you like (no, I'm not going to do that).


For each of your negative quotes, I can find many more positive quotes. As they say you can't please everybody, there'll always be a small percentage haters even if Paradox's next game cured cancer, but Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis got a very welcome reception.




I consider them villains, I don't ask you to agree.

Now I'm curious, why do you consider them villains after playing a single one of their games and never trying out their other good stuff that's been critically acclaimed?

Grif
2019-10-07, 01:33 AM
I have sunk hundreds of hours in Stellaris 1.0 when it was released. Just because *you* didn't liked it doesn't qualify it as a "half/quarter of a game".

Edit: and if it's acknowledged EU4 and CK2 were good games right off the bat, then it's hardly a "Paradox-wide issue" isn't it?


I did likewise, but I think it's a pretty valid criticism of Stellaris that it took a lot of post-release work to fill it out. Stellaris at release had possibly the best every early game out of any space game, especially on your first few playthroughs. Eventually, you ran out of events and territory and the limits of the content in the game quickly became apparent.


Houlio answered my point perfectly. Stellaris nailed the early game. I have absolutely no complaints about that part. Like you, I probably put in dozens, maybe a hundred plus hours in it. It spectacularly falls flat once you reach the mid-late game, and the limitations of their design/content became felt very quickly. It's widely agreed they pushed the 1.0 release half-baked because they needed it out in time for release before they ran out of budget. Which is where my description of "half-finished game" comes to play. Contrast that with EU4, which even at 1.0, presented a functional early (initial conquest/survival), mid (colonization/conquest) and late (empire-building/AE management/paint the map) game to play in.

Do not mistake my criticism for DISLIKING the game. I love Stellaris. I wish the dev team all the best in trying to actually complete the game as it's meant to be played. But I will not hesitate to call a spade a spade in that Stellaris 1.0 was a mere skeleton of the game that frontloaded all its content and only raced to fill in the gaps in subsequent DLCs.


Now that, with my part in derailment complete, I'll put up another contender. Endless Space 2 and its related titles. If you like 4X games and beautiful aesthetic design, you cannot go wrong with Endless Space. The first game doesn't run very well on modern systems, and has been superseeded by its second iteration, so you should just grab ES2 instead. Endless Legends is a Civ-like spinoff that takes place on a planet instead, and has a unique take on combat. (YMMV on whether or not its actually engaging).

Rynjin
2019-10-07, 01:39 AM
Endless Legend is probably the best 4x I've ever played.

Kaptin Keen
2019-10-07, 04:48 AM
For each of your negative quotes, I can find many more positive quotes. As they say you can't please everybody, there'll always be a small percentage haters even if Paradox's next game cured cancer, but Crusader Kings and Europa Universalis got a very welcome reception.

Of course you can. It's not EA, after all.


Now I'm curious, why do you consider them villains after playing a single one of their games and never trying out their other good stuff that's been critically acclaimed?

Why? Well - let me answer your question with a question of my own: Do you feel I'd need to actually try, say, 3 out of 5 of the latest EA titles to realise they're villains?

I consider information gathering a core human skill, and I read a lot. You have no idea how many people hate Paradox - or how much they hate them - unless you read as many user reviews as I do.

Sure .. there are many positive ones too. But then you look at what it is they publish, and a pattern emerges: Some people are ok with sinking 150-200 of your currency of choice into what basically just amounts to 'a strategy game', and some aren't. I'm of the latter conviction.


Now that, with my part in derailment complete, I'll put up another contender. Endless Space 2 and its related titles. If you like 4X games and beautiful aesthetic design, you cannot go wrong with Endless Space. The first game doesn't run very well on modern systems, and has been superseeded by its second iteration, so you should just grab ES2 instead. Endless Legends is a Civ-like spinoff that takes place on a planet instead, and has a unique take on combat. (YMMV on whether or not its actually engaging).


Endless Legend is probably the best 4x I've ever played.

I've considered the Endless game many, many times. I think the only reason I never bought one is that the title itself seems unimaginative to me =)

houlio
2019-10-07, 06:17 AM
I've considered the Endless game many, many times. I think the only reason I never bought one is that the title itself seems unimaginative to me =)

Endless Legend is really good for a more traditional civ-style 4x. I don’t think it’s perfect, but the base of having the map divided into provinces which can only fit one city was a great idea that serves to limit city spread while making the early land grab still very important. The factions have different enough mechanics to make them interesting as well, which is a nice plus.