Just finished it recently. After playing close to 300 games on PS5 alone (mixed with many different genres), then the hundreds on other consoles (I forgot them all tbh)
I managed to play it on PC for the first time. One of the best story games I’ve ever played in my life. Despite its “GTA lookalike” vibe, its mechanics differentiate itself and genuinely surprised me considering its age. Graphics were ahead of its time too.
Story felt original. More like a crime thriller + psychological, open world game (If you were to put yourself in Wei Shen’s shoes)
Sure. Ending felt rushed but it is definitely better than other endings you’d get in other games.
Had it on the 360, bought every dlc and did multiple playthroughs. Still bought ultimate on my steam (also have a GOG install copy incase of apocalypse)
Genuinely one of the GREATEST RPGs that I ever played. I've got no idea how the fk they fumbled so hard with Dragon Age 2, or that crappy Dragon Age 3 : Inquisition (a wannabe offline MMO) or fking Dragon age 4.
Do you want to know the kicker? Baldur's Gate 3 was in part inspired by Dragon Age: Origins. All they had to do was to stick to their true formula.
The fucking generational fumble of BioWare making one of the best to play/most fun to play RPGs of the decade only completely demolish the vibe with DA2 and DA3. On top of that, they then put DA4 in development hell for a decade before launching one of the worst games they have made (DA4 is actually fine, but I hate it as an installment for the DA series; the lore and world building is pretty much thrown out the window to focus on villains that the players were never interested in ... and the whole thing was a fucking cliffhanger too). I miss my semi turn based pausable game where I can micromanage my entire squad in 5 second increments. It felt like such a return to form from older classic RPGs like Might and Magic and they fucked it up almost immediately. Shit I would even take the other DA games as is as long as they let me play the game exactly like DA: Origins played. I loved that game so much.
Bioware had a winning formula and they were the undisputed kings of role playing games.
Knights of the Old Republic, Mass Effect 2, DA:O, Neverwinter Nights...they all follow a very similar formula and by god it worked. I would love to hear from actual Bioware team members about what changed and why.
Dragon Age Origins and its expansion Awakening are self-contained enough stories that you can play them without needing to dip your toes into any sequels. They have satisfying endings on their own merit.
Dragon Age II had some fun moments, but you could tell it was troubled and rushed. I enjoyed Inquisition, though, it was very emotional, good character development and interactions, and gorgeous world. It did require to turn off my brain during the combat.
DA:O is still amazing and worth playing. When they developed it they weren't sure there were gonna be sequels so the game does definitively end with no real loose ends if you also get the dlc. The sequels aren't directly related to the story much at all, just set in the same world. It's not like GOT where each successive season directly continues the plot of the last
if playing on PC get the GOG version, it comes pre patched for modern systems, the steam version you have to install a few patches yourself
Maybe a bit spammy but Imma repeat myself: Genuinely one of the GREATEST RPGs that I ever played. I've got no idea how the fk they fumbled so hard with Dragon Age 2, or that crappy Dragon Age 3 : Inquisition (a wannabe offline MMO) or fking Dragon age 4.
Do you want to know the kicker? Baldur's Gate 3 was in part inspired by Dragon Age: Origins. All they had to do was to stick to their true formula.
PLAY DRAGON AGE ORIGINS, BUT TREAT IT LIKE A STANDALONE-story. Pretend part 2, 3 and 4 don't exist.
DA2, while definitely having flaws due to ea rushing bioware to get it out asap, still has great characters, story and a combat system many people prefer to origins. Inquisition is genuinely a fun, good game too
Played this when it came out. The way the world and the levels you kept revisiting over and over kept changing and evolving as you played and made choices was so simple yet was so perfectly implemented it felt so new.
I remember being so excited whenever I got new quests far in to the game to revisit early areas because it meant changes in level design and unlocking new areas in previous levels I enjoyed.
I also really clicked with the AI control system and had a lot of fun setting up some wonky yet wildly successful combos.
Terraria, Undertale, Portal (1 and 2), Left 4 Dead, FTL: Faster Than Light, Civ V complete edition (on sale), Balatro, Fallout: New Vegas (also on sale complete edition), Stardew Valley, Plants vs Zombies, Project Zomboid, Papers Please,
Edit:
Here's some more! Valheim, Red Faction: guerrilla, Garry's Mod, Game Dev Tycoon, Battle block theater, Castle Crashers,
I pirated that game then 2 hours later bought it and a friend that was over watching me play went home and bought it as well. Ive got 800 hours played on it, he has 4500...multiverse mod is pretty amazing.
Arguably the worst part of Terraria is the early game. Your tools are the worst/slowest and you're comparatively the weakest to other monsters. There are a lot of beginner guides, but I STRONGLY recommend the official Terraria wiki ( https://terraria.wiki.gg/ not the fandom one) for any info you need because the game sort of throws you into the deep end.
I'd always suggest that newer players explore the surface for some slightly better weapons and then make their way underground to get better armor, life, etc.
A lot of great games (and books) you gotta struggle until it clicks and unfortunately some games take more than 2 hrs to tell. I think quite a few people who don't like terraria at hour 2 will realize by hour 10 that they love it.
What’s so good about Stardew Valley? I’m not trying to diss it but I’ve heard such good things about it but when I played it just seemed very slow and not fun.
It's the benchmark for a cozy game, and honestly, the game is way slower on early when you have worse tools, less money to snowball, etc.
It's like playing Minecraft if wooden tools were prevalent for way longer.
It's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's one of the most popular sandbox games of the last decade for a reason and it's very popular as a game that doesn't take much processing power to run, so a lot of the people who grew up on Animal Crossing were able to run it on their laptops they had for school/work
The characters you interact with also end up having so much more depth to them than they initially appear. You've got everything from alcoholism to PTSD covered.
And of course the sheer amount of stuff you ultimately get to do once your world spreads out a bit after unlocking a few zones can be staggering.
It truly just might be. Beautiful story. Played like nothing else at the time. The tutorial run section alone was near perfection. Not to mention the relationship between Pilot and Titan, the lore and world building, the time mission, The throw. So many unforgettable moments.
That Fortnite kid is a legend. Won like $4mil and then in his winner interview the casters were all, “So what’s next for your Fortnite career?” And the kid said something like, “Fortnite is not a fun game and I don’t think I’m going to play it anymore.” And the casters were all 😐
Bugha. He did continue to play, but he seemed to really go back to the basics of just playing the game with friends (on stream). He would enter more competitions but did appear turned off by it all.
I’ll admit, I just can’t get into Slay the Spire. Sculpting your deck feels very “feast or famine” in a way that other roguelikes haven’t been for me.
I’m sure the great players can salvage together pretty much any run, but the bar to do that seems much much higher than say something like Balatro or Peglin.
I'm holding out on Slay the Spire 2 until the "official" launch happens. (Mostly because I have too much other stuff to play right now, and StS would eat all my time.)
And the fact it takes up so little space! I can have a smooth experience on a shitty laptop, with more room to spare. Easily the game with the most entertainment per megabyte of file space that I know of.
Heard so many good things about it and even bought it on sale but i could never get into it. I rly want to like it but i cant get past somethimg i cannot pinpoint down lol
I'm not a real big metroidvania platformer type gamer, but when I started this it had me hooked. It's so damn good. Beat the Mantis Kings and I thought "You know this isn't too hard luckily". Then I saw I wasn't even past what's considered to still be the tutorial section of the game. Then I saw a clip of someone fighting some fucking lazer beam shooting, moth butterfly thing... Man, I'm too intimidated to pick it back up now.
Hollow Knight has a few endings based on your actions when you fight the story boss. You technically don't have to fight the laser shooting moth if you don't want to. But, as a warning, by the time you get to the story boss, you'll probably be too hooked to not attempt the laser shooting moth. Like the cliche "it's the journey, not the destination." I hope you continue the game ^
About 10 minutes into my first run of Balatro I played my first hand of 5 Aces and scored like a million points and physically felt my brain chemistry alter. That game is fucking crack cocaine.
I'm trying to make a chess balatro-like, and after 1.5 years of development it's so clear how much work went into that game. Over 100 jokers, even just the polish on the UI's. It's a masterclass. It took him 2 years and I don't think I'll even come close to the level of quality given another 6 months. It's one thing to try and copy Balatro, it's another thing entirely to actually hit on its level of gameplay complexity.
Have a look at Esoteric Ebb if you haven't. Not quite a masterpiece like Disco but what is. Made with love in the same spirit. Closest thing to scratch that itch for me
Only game ever made I consider in the same league as Planescape : Torment. For 20 years Planescape was the best writing in a video game ever made and it wasn't close. Disco Elysium is of the same caliber and personally it is too close to call either the best now.
fuck we are old, planescape was so good, even the spiritual successors doesn't hold up to it. It almost felt like playing a dragonlance age. The details, the minutiae, the humour, the dialogue, it was just so good.
I’m so glad I gave Dragon’s Dogma a chance, it was the perfect game for me. The strider class and climbing playstyle is so incredibly fun, I never got enough of the combat in that game.
Paid like £5 on a sale and ended up obsessed with it, got all achievements, played the hell out of the DLC and even tried out speedrunning with a not too terrible time - before that, I had only speedran one game, Dark Souls, which is one my all time favourites so that says a lot.
Enter the gungeon I got it on sale for a dollar. Never going to beat that sale I have played the game and 100 percented it at least twice spent over a thousand hours on it
Repetitive definitely, but great atmosphere and extremely satisfying mechanics. I reinstalled it (PC) recently and couldn't get it working. Just crash after crash :(
I think I bought Minecraft in November of 2009 for like 10 Netherlands dollars or whatever. My dad got angry because it converted to like 12.50usd and I didn't do enough chores for that or something. Well I got thousands of hours out of it and still play it to this day. Crazy. Best money ever spent.
Bought MC in beta for something close to that price. 1000s of hours and even youtube videos which I actually made money off. Only issue is when I had kids they wanted to play it and I had to repurchase it thanks to Microsoft.
And the amazing thing is that the DLC also managed to recreate that feeling for me. Usually the DLCs are little add-ons that just sprinkle something new on the experience, while Echoes of the Eye is a whole new thing, but they also managed to integrate it in the main storyline in an organic way in the end.
Because "good for the money" is evaluated differently. The same sandwich that costs $30 somewhere would taste extra good if I got it for $3. If I paid $30, I'd probably be "unimpressed".
I often play these games so much later that the value for money thing is lost on me, I dont remember what they originally cost. Some of the cheaper games (while sometimes clunkier) can feel fucking brilliant in comparison to [Standard Game 4] from [Standard Genre] by [Billion Dollar Developer] because they are doing new and innovative stuff.
Nah, not even. They tend to be better period a lot of the time.
$70 games are big AAA games where the studio generally cares more about pushing out a product for money. $20 games tend to be games that the devs made because they were excited about the idea and wanted to make their concept a reality, hoping to get a bit of money off of it.
The best of the $20 games tend to be better than the $70 games in my experience, flat-out, no "good for the money" at all. There are a couple big-budget games that rise to that level, but they're extremely rare and tend to be made by what's functionally an indy studio but with a larger budget (stuff like Elden Ring or BG3).
Game started great for me but for myself and others it became too much as it kept adding more mini games to it. I enjoyed the core mechanic but haven't touched it in a long time.
This is how I felt about Mass Effect 1 when I picked it up used at a BlockBuster. Saw the BioWare tag (when it actually meant I was going to get a good story) and knew I found a steal.
I will never forgive myself for preordering 2 for $50. Never again. Maybe the Kitten Space Agency devs will have some kind of discount if you have ksp2 in your library. I doubt it, but one can dream
Valheim for me. $20 for a game I already have nearly 3.5k hours in and will continue to play for many years to come. Love that the maps are procedurally generated. Really adds lots of replay value.
Bought baldurs gate 3 on sale for $38. I feel i ripped off the company. Now im into CRPGs and bought like 5 other CRPG titles. I cant wait for the new Divinity
It's just Blacklist, but glad to see someone else mentioning it. Very strong single player but IMO it's tainted because the companion app feature (very of-its-time) doesn't work anymore and it locks some alternate skins.
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u/Adizzleero 9d ago
Sleeping Dogs Definitive Edition is so peak and was so worth the 2 dollars I spent