Gaming thoughts, bite-size chewables - new orange flavor!

[malor]

I try not to take 'best games' lists terribly seriously, because there are just so many, and they span such an enormous range of technological progress. Rather, I try to take them as suggestions for things to play if current offerings aren't palatable, and I'd say this list is doing a good job, there. I can't see any titles that I've actively disliked, a lot that I've enjoyed, and a bunch that I haven't gotten to yet. Presuming that the unknowns are of equal quality to the ones I know, I'd say they did well making this compilation.

One game that could have used a mention, though, is Dragon Age:Origins. That was Bioware at the height of its powers.

 

[Frosty Grin]

If anything a best games to play right now should only have games from the past 2-3 years.

I don't think it's ever been true - but it's especially untrue now with, on one hand, so many games on people's backlogs and, on the other hand, practically limitless availability, to the point that you can play any particular game on Game Pass for no extra cost. Or get it on a deep sale. Personally, I have played or tried a little less than a third of the games from this list. Some are on my wishlist, others just don't appeal to me at all - which doesn't actually guarantee I wouldn't enjoy them. But some are obscure enough to me that I don't have a mental image of them. And many are made more than 2-3 years ago.

One game that could have used a mention, though, is Dragon Age:Origins. That was Bioware at the height of its powers.

I'd appreciate The Witness - but can forgive them for not including it because they included Zero Escape: The Nonary Games. Another puzzle game (technically a series) that's so much more than the sum of the puzzles.

 

[Nekojin]

If anything a best games to play right now should only have games from the past 2-3 years.

"Past 3 years" would rule out Terraria, Slay The Spire, and a whole bunch of other popular games. I mean, let's look at Steam Charts right now:

Lost Ark only barely fits within the 3-year window*. Cyberpunk is 2 years old. Looking at the Top 25, there's only a very small handful of games that were made in the last 3 years, and only one or two (FIFA 2023) that were made this year.

Stardew Valley is #25, and that's six years old. I think it shows pretty well that the gamer crowd aren't as fickle as we're occasionally accused of being.

* Technically. For US players, it's new this year, but was originally released in Asia back in 2019.

 

[MichaelC]

top XX lists are always highly subjective. At 100 titles with no genre limits, this is a pretty broad list covering a wide variety of different types of games new and relatively old. It's a decent list. There are many, many games on that list I've never played and will never play as they fall outside what I like. There are more than a few I've never heard of. That's ok.

This is also a list of games that are playable now and distinguished from "important games". So covering the past 20 years seems reasonable to me.

Having said that, not having Fran Bow, The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series*, or The Wolf Among Us on the list is a big fail for me. So for me personally, I could have squeezed out a few of those sim builder games, of which there seemed to be an abundance to make room for a few adventure games.





*Hey look, they included the Mass Effect Legendary Edition and the Halo Master Chief Collection as a loophole for their "one game in a franchise/series" rule.

 

[Tom Foolery]

I'd argue that despite it being old Planescape is one of the best games you can play right now. *shrug*

Maybe my inner angry old man is coming out.

Planescape Torment was a great game for its day, but the UI is clunky from a modern perspective. I can see people bouncing off it hard.

I'm honestly astonished that no MMOs are on the list, and neither is Overwatch. World of Warcraft held the record for most-purchased and highest player activity for years, only surpassed by Fortnite (which was free to play once the Battle Royale mode caught fire). Even if you don't like MMOs in general and the predatory practices that keep people playing, WoW deserves a place on the list, IMO. (I note that it is mentioned in the Special Mentions section, though.)

Also odd is that there don't seem to be any DOS-era games in the Top 100. No respect for Ultima 4? The Bard's Tale trilogy? The original Sim City? Maybe even Scorched Earth? Even Planescape: Torment doesn't make the list, except when referencing it from other games.

Bold mine. Guild Wars 2 is on the list.

This list is garbage. Skyrim at #75 and Dishonored 2 at what, #17? I loved them both, but they accidentally reversed the order on at least two of those games.

 

[Nekojin]

Yeah, yeah, I missed both Guild Wars 2 and Final Fantasy 14*. But I have to ask: Is Guild Wars 2 really an MMO? I haven't played it, but I played the first one. The first one was often called an MMO, but only the cities (hubs) actually had more than a single group at a time; the entire game was large numbers of instanced set pieces. Is GW2 like that, or does it have most of the game open and non-instanced? Or, to put it another way, will you run into other players who are not in your team anywhere outside of towns/hubs?

* As for Final Fantasy 14, I was never really impressed with it. It's beautiful, but it doesn't really advance the MMO model significantly past what WoW, WildStar, and other semi-modern MMOs offer. And yet it's held to the vaunted #10 PC game of all time? I don't see it.

 

[GloatingSwine]

I'm pretty sure GW2 is shared world with world events and such to draw players together.

And what does "advance the MMO model*" mean? FF14 certainly focuses a lot more on story and writing than WoW did, with lengthy cutscenes with much more focus on its recurring cast. Is that advancing the model? It's certainly a unique selling point for FF14 compared to other MMOs.




* The secret is that there is no one MMO model. There are different ones with different focuses. WoW is focused on endgame and raids, for instance. ESO is focused on questing and openworld exploration. FF14 is focused on story (but it also maybe as good at raids as WoW). Guild Wars 2 is also focused on openworld but with more focus on exploration and group content than ESO.

 

[Scifigod]

Guild wars 2 had instances for dungeons and your personal story missions but otherwise everything was open.

 

[Nekojin]

I'm pretty sure GW2 is shared world with world events and such to draw players together.

Guild wars 2 had instances for dungeons and your personal story missions but otherwise everything was open.

Fair enough. I acknowledge my ignorance, and recognize that GW2 is a legitimate MMO, then.

 

[Tom Foolery]

This is how "not into" Final Fantasy games I am: I did not know that FF14 was an MMO.

 

[MichaelC]

This list is garbage. Skyrim at #75 and Dishonored 2 at what, #17? I loved them both, but they accidentally reversed the order on at least two of those games.

I was pretty surprised and happy Dishonored got on the list, even more so that it was so high on the list. I also agree with the placement... I would have shifted Skyrim down. There are a few games I would have moved further up.

 

[Tom Foolery]

This list is garbage. Skyrim at #75 and Dishonored 2 at what, #17? I loved them both, but they accidentally reversed the order on at least two of those games.

I was pretty surprised and happy Dishonored got on the list, even more so that it was so high on the list. I also agree with the placement... I would have shifted Skyrim down. There are a few games I would have moved further up.

Agreed. By their logic, Skyrim: Anniversary Edition should have been on the list, and higher than it was. I was happy to see Dishonored on the list as well. And since I am not into the same genres as the authors, I would probably put half the list down as something I am simply not interested in. I'm sure my preferences would be different, though, if I made a living writing about computer games. More exposure and time to play and all that....

 

[Robotank]

FFXIV is pretty interesting in the larger picture of MMOs. It's a pretty "vanilla" MMO, but it does those fundamental things really well.
And then perhaps most importantly they've managed to last for many years without fucking it up. That's the really hard part - given enough time, most online games seem to eventually want to re-invent themselves and take a left turn and lose the original spark.

FFXIV has been pretty conservative through the years and has generally just been a really reliable social space to do MMORPG things.

 

[krimhorn]

FFXIV is pretty interesting in the larger picture of MMOs. It's a pretty "vanilla" MMO, but it does those fundamental things really well.
And then perhaps most importantly they've managed to last for many years without fucking it up. That's the really hard part - given enough time, most online games seem to eventually want to re-invent themselves and take a left turn and lose the original spark.

Well, the benefit to FFXIV is that there was no original spark. They pivoted and pivoted hard after a couple of years into A Realm Reborn that ended up working and that's what they've managed to stick to.

 

[CPX]

That list was...uneven, to say the least. I was glad some things even made the list (XCOM 2 getting as high as it did, Battletech), but I was far more annoyed at the franchise entries that did make the list over other choices (HalfLife Alyx over HalfLife 2 or Doom Eternal over Doom 2016), franchises that made it on at all, and entry placements (FONV getting in the 90s compared to Skyrim).

Oh well.

 

[tiosteven]

I finally bought Skyrim VR last night. At the going rate, I’ll probably get to it after I retire. Anyway, the relevance is some of the initial reviews absolutely pan the release. For top X lists, do they base the list on vanilla installs or include modding? I can see some games having massively different ratings based on that criteria.

 

[MichaelC]

If you read any of the comments, one person talks about FONV needing 100 mods while another counters saying nah, you just need three, and lists them. Pretty much what you would think, a UI mod, and I think a couple patch mods.

 

[CPX]

If you read any of the comments, one person talks about FONV needing 100 mods while another counters saying nah, you just need three, and lists them. Pretty much what you would think, a UI mod, and I think a couple patch mods.

I do get that Skyrim is the more popular game overall but I do expect PC Gamer to not lean on popularity as the only metric. Could be worse. They coulda put FO4 on the list instead.

 

[MichaelC]

Was debating whether to create a new thread as there is a lot to unpack... but at the same time, most of it is in the planning stages.

https://twitter.com/CDPROJEKTRED/status ... FydBdE9J2Q

CDPR posted a thread listing several projects in the works... well, I think most of it is in the planning stages at this time. Maybe some are in development already.

But to summarize...

they will make another Cyberpunk game.

there are at least three different Witcher projects in the works. One is the next installment, another is a separate game, and the third is a multiplayer game with a single player story as well.

and they are making a new game based on new IP. this one is code named Hadar. All of these projects have codenames based on names of stars. So it probably doesn't mean anything, but I guess I'm hoping that this is a sci-fi based game, possibly in Beta Centauri. That's my wishful thinking.

 

[malor]

This is how "not into" Final Fantasy games I am: I did not know that FF14 was an MMO.

It's a pretty good one. I bought the recent expansion and started a new character, since my original character had been from the first release, which was pretty bad, meaning I dropped out very quickly. (1 or 2 months). I played through the plotline and really enjoyed it, but petered out at the last expansion. That was as much FF14 as I could handle at once. Five or six months later, I'm starting to think about firing it back up and finishing the last ten levels.

I'm playing it thoroughly casually, but they really do a good job of keeping old content relevant, so you can play through the whole thing and usually have no trouble finding people for dungeons. All characters at all levels get useful daily rewards for running random content, and they get downleveled to match the content, so you usually don't have to wait that long for a full squad. And you'll usually start running random dungeons, too, every day.

I was treating it like a singleplayer game and didn't really make any friends, but I imagine that's a lot easier once you get to endgame content. Seeing the same person more than once would probably help a lot.

 

[malor]

If they increased the interaction level in their city, made the civilians and villains smarter, they could totally do a new game in the same spot.

The only real change I'd suggest to the actual city would be less of the juvenile advertisements. Early Rockstar games, Vice City in particular, were on the funny side of edgy, with their very clever ads, but their later games and CP2077 were all on the cringe side, instead. They went way too obvious (LOOK AT US BEING EDGELORDS, YOU MUST GET THIS JOKE) instead of being subtle.

 

[Tom Foolery]

Was debating whether to create a new thread as there is a lot to unpack... but at the same time, most of it is in the planning stages.

https://twitter.com/CDPROJEKTRED/status ... FydBdE9J2Q

CDPR posted a thread listing several projects in the works... well, I think most of it is in the planning stages at this time. Maybe some are in development already.

But to summarize...

they will make another Cyberpunk game.

there are at least three different Witcher projects in the works. One is the next installment, another is a separate game, and the third is a multiplayer game with a single player story as well.

and they are making a new game based on new IP. this one is code named Hadar. All of these projects have codenames based on names of stars. So it probably doesn't mean anything, but I guess I'm hoping that this is a sci-fi based game, possibly in Beta Centauri. That's my wishful thinking.

I am looking forward to the upcoming CDPR content, for sure. While I love The Witcher games and CP2077, I am most interested in a possible open-world sci-fi games. Of course, then people will be complaining about how janky the game is and how your ship can't make 90° turns in space.

 

[Papageno]

Was debating whether to create a new thread as there is a lot to unpack... but at the same time, most of it is in the planning stages.

https://twitter.com/CDPROJEKTRED/status ... FydBdE9J2Q

CDPR posted a thread listing several projects in the works... well, I think most of it is in the planning stages at this time. Maybe some are in development already.

But to summarize...

they will make another Cyberpunk game.

there are at least three different Witcher projects in the works. One is the next installment, another is a separate game, and the third is a multiplayer game with a single player story as well.

and they are making a new game based on new IP. this one is code named Hadar. All of these projects have codenames based on names of stars. So it probably doesn't mean anything, but I guess I'm hoping that this is a sci-fi based game, possibly in Beta Centauri. That's my wishful thinking.

I am looking forward to the upcoming CDPR content, for sure. While I love The Witcher games and CP2077, I am most interested in a possible open-world sci-fi games. Of course, then people will be complaining about how janky the game is and how your ship can't make 90° turns in space.

Hey, maybe in the next Cyberpunk game they could actually put a synth/retrowave radio station in there! It wouldn't kill them is all I'm saying. And on the PC, give me a station that lets me play my own tunes.

 

[CPX]

If they increased the interaction level in their city, made the civilians and villains smarter, they could totally do a new game in the same spot.

The only real change I'd suggest to the actual city would be less of the juvenile advertisements. Early Rockstar games, Vice City in particular, were on the funny side of edgy, with their very clever ads, but their later games and CP2077 were all on the cringe side, instead. They went way too obvious (LOOK AT US BEING EDGELORDS, YOU MUST GET THIS JOKE) instead of being subtle.

But if they had subtlety, they might get sued for creative theft by the developers of You Don't Know Jack.

 

[Nekojin]

I got an email regarding an upcoming game, Stranded: Alien Dawn. It's interesting. It's... RimWorld, with better graphics, better UI, and preset and predefined characters (which you get to choose from).

It looks interesting, but it'll be releasing in Early Access. Let's see how the launch is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPa3Px63VpM

 

[Frosty Grin]

What is is with so many clunky but promising-looking indie horrors? Is it because animations are more important in this genre? Or because they're trying to do something interesting with inventories and items - and that's more difficult than a basic shooter or walking simulator?

 

[Diabolical]

Set my PC back up. Proper cable management achieved! Also, several demo’s pulled down to try in the next couple of days. Just games that were already wishlisted that I want to try for a few minutes. Not enough time to really dig into what is available in Next Fest this time around.


Edit:

Played a few minutes of the demo of Forever Skies. What is it? Subnautica, except among the cloud flecked top-of-building ruins of future earth. What 15-20 minutes of gameplay showed? That it's a bit rough, needs some serious optimization, but feels pretty much Subnautica-but-in-the-sky.

Also played a few minutes of Scars Above. Third person exploration shooter, set on an alien world. My first impressions over twenty minutes can be summed up in the following thought: What if Metroid Prime and Remnant: From The Ashes had a kid? Looks interesting, played alright - a hitch here and there. Will keep it on the list.

 

[Frosty Grin]

Also played a few minutes of Scars Above. Third person exploration shooter, set on an alien world. My first impressions over twenty minutes can be summed up in the following thought: What if Metroid Prime and Remnant: From The Ashes had a kid? Looks interesting, played alright - a hitch here and there. Will keep it on the list.

Played it too, and further than 20 minutes - and it's a bit paint-by-numbers for me, and not as well-made as I expected. Plus soulslike mechanics in a game where they don't belong, thematically or mechanically.

I finished all the demos from the Next Fest that I intended to play, and overall it's a bit disappointing for me. The only one I liked was Ill Will - a fun and fast shooter, somewhere between Serious Sam and Doom Eternal. Velaster could be good once they add gamepad controls - but it seems... heavily inspired by Dark Souls. Imperfect and Cognition Method are good-looking puzzle/adventure games with horror tones, but the demos don't really show anything especially good in terms of gameplay.

 

[Diabolical]

Also played a few minutes of Scars Above. Third person exploration shooter, set on an alien world. My first impressions over twenty minutes can be summed up in the following thought: What if Metroid Prime and Remnant: From The Ashes had a kid? Looks interesting, played alright - a hitch here and there. Will keep it on the list.

Played it too, and further than 20 minutes - and it's a bit paint-by-numbers for me, and not as well-made as I expected. Plus soulslike mechanics in a game where they don't belong, thematically or mechanically.

I finished all the demos from the Next Fest that I intended to play, and overall it's a bit disappointing for me. The only one I liked was Ill Will - a fun and fast shooter, somewhere between Serious Sam and Doom Eternal. Velaster could be good once they add gamepad controls - but it seems... heavily inspired by Dark Souls. Imperfect and Cognition Method are good-looking puzzle/adventure games with horror tones, but the demos don't really show anything especially good in terms of gameplay.

I agree with you on Scars Above. I’m keeping it on the wishlist basically to see if it ever drops down to like $2? I’ll pick it up.

And I have two more to play. Knight Witch, and Aquatico.

 

[Happysin]

Speaking of horror games, Dead Space is getting a remake. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Dead Space is easily my favorite horror game of all time, especially with all the supporting comics that brought the story to life. But it doesn't seem like it needs to be remade. And even if really is a major improvement, I'm not sure I need to play it again.

I am going to be following the January release with interest, though. Hopefully a new generation will learn the horrors of Dead Space.

 

[Frosty Grin]

Speaking of horror games, Dead Space is getting a remake. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Dead Space is easily my favorite horror game of all time, especially with all the supporting comics that brought the story to life. But it doesn't seem like it needs to be remade. And even if really is a major improvement, I'm not sure I need to play it again.

I am going to be following the January release with interest, though. Hopefully a new generation will learn the horrors of Dead Space.

Now that we've seen the trailer, I agree that the remake doesn't look different enough. Take something like the Resident Evil 2 remake - and the difference is obvious and justifies the full price. The Dead Space remake doesn't even look current gen.

I don't really mind - just hope it won't lead to a trend of remasters and remakes instead of patching up and discounting the old games. So far it doesn't look like any remake like this is a guaranteed success.

As for replay value, I tried replaying the original a few years ago, with supersampling and forced AF - and, while I didn't finish it, I got pretty far. It still was fun for me while something like The Witcher 2, for example no longer was.

 

[BigLan]

a trend of remasters and remakes instead of patching up and discounting the old games

Nervous Sony laughter...

 

[Happysin]

Speaking of horror games, Dead Space is getting a remake. I'm not sure how I feel about that. Dead Space is easily my favorite horror game of all time, especially with all the supporting comics that brought the story to life. But it doesn't seem like it needs to be remade. And even if really is a major improvement, I'm not sure I need to play it again.

I am going to be following the January release with interest, though. Hopefully a new generation will learn the horrors of Dead Space.

Now that we've seen the trailer, I agree that the remake doesn't look different enough. Take something like the Resident Evil 2 remake - and the difference is obvious and justifies the full price. The Dead Space remake doesn't even look current gen.

I don't really mind - just hope it won't lead to a trend of remasters and remakes instead of patching up and discounting the old games. So far it doesn't look like any remake like this is a guaranteed success.

As for replay value, I tried replaying the original a few years ago, with supersampling and forced AF - and, while I didn't finish it, I got pretty far. It still was fun for me while something like The Witcher 2, for example no longer was.

I think horror games are especially in a tricky situation, because you can't just do a like-for-like remake as the tropes have changed. Some of the things Dead Space were revolutionary at the time. They're not now. You have to find that now "oomph" while keeping the story.

I think of it like the Evil Dead (movie, not game) remake. I think they nailed that remake, because they utterly owned the practical effects to a level I had never seen a movie do, but they also subverted expectations of the fans by making it pure horror instead of horror comedy. I was really impressed that not only did they execute well, they fucked with me personally as a fan of the original.

Dead Space has to fuck with the original fans in a way that gets them off-balance, or you won't get the feeling again.

 

[krimhorn]

I think of it like the Evil Dead (movie, not game) remake. I think they nailed that remake, because they utterly owned the practical effects to a level I had never seen a movie do, but they also subverted expectations of the fans by making it pure horror instead of horror comedy. I was really impressed that not only did they execute well, they fucked with me personally as a fan of the original.

Evil Dead wasn't really horror comedy though. Evil Dead 2 added in some comedy in the places where it made sense (mostly everything to do with Campbell since he sells it so well) but the first movie didn't have that much of it. Army of Darkness, of course, was a comedy with a bit of gore in it.

I think it was in the thread for Dead Space that I said I hope that this is just Motive doing due-diligence, in a comparatively inexpensive way, to analyze and figure out what made Dead Space so great so that when they make their Dead Space 2 they make something that hews closer to the first game than the original second game. DS2 was fine, and it had a really interesting and well used setting, but it was just a bit too far over the line toward a shooter than a horror game to really gel the same tension as the first game had.

 

[Diabolical]

Final Next Fest Demo impressions:

Aquatico is a fairly run of the mill colony/city builder, that happens to be underwater. I suspect there are much better options out there, but if this is your schtick, their might be something there to convince you to pick it up. I am ambivalent towards this genre for the most part, and I come away feeling a solid "eh".


The Knight Witch is a twin-stick shooter / "metroidvania" hybrid that feels really nice to control. Can't speak to the metroidvania aspect without some serious play time, but initial impressions? Very favorable! It's been getting quite a bit of hype as the indie darling of several recent expos and cons, and it feels pretty well deserved.

 

[Frosty Grin]

Dead Space has to fuck with the original fans in a way that gets them off-balance, or you won't get the feeling again.

The Dead Space remake isn't necessarily meant for the original fans in the first place. And even if it is, it isn't necessarily supposed to evoke the same feeling. It can be the "comfort food" of horror instead.

Personally, I've been arguing that even DS3 moving in the direction of action might have been the right call, as you just don't get the same alien feeling the third time in a row, even if you change things here and there. You'd need a new game for that.

 

[Interactive Civilian]

I know I'm a million years late to the party, but OMG you guys NieR Automata is sofa king good!

And the soundtrack is outstanding!

 

[Diabolical]

I know I'm a million years late to the party, but OMG you guys NieR Automata is sofa king good!

And the soundtrack is outstanding!

It’s the game that convinced me to play the majority of Platinum’s larger titles. They absolutely peak at Nier Automata. Bayonetta 1 & 2 are fun, Astral Chain is alright, and Vanquish is underrated. Transformers Devastation is a fun time too. But Nier Automata is their best work.

 

[Doomlord_uk]

That reminds me I really must get another PS2 (one that works this time) and start playing that game series (Drakengard...) to work up to Nier. Spent ages finding the damn games and boom my PS2 died /heads off to fleabay...

 

[krimhorn]

That reminds me I really must get another PS2 (one that works this time) and start playing that game series (Drakengard...) to work up to Nier. Spent ages finding the damn games and boom my PS2 died /heads off to fleabay...

I just got XBSX2 and RetroArch installed on my Series X because I've been hankering to play Shadow Hearts and Persona 3 FES again. Of course I've also just started a Dragon Age playthrough so...No. I can't add Drakengard to that list. I can't, I can't, I can't.

I probably will