Well they ought to know because of the Steam Hardware Survey. I’d trust the number.

Boy that screenshot from War Robots: Frontiers^tm sure looks intriguing. I’ll wishlist it.

/s

Pillars of Eternity. I really appreciate that they must have had some Anthropology majors on the team, especially for II, because the worlds feel much more exotic than other RPGs. It shows up just how generic Medieval Fantasy most RPGs are.
The tropical Roparu (?) society with its caste system is particularly interesting. The interaction of the various factions is believable. And of course the pantheon is well though out.
The downside is that they can be clumsy about exposition of the world - especially in the first one, you get these enormous lore-dumps.

Finally caved in and started playing Slay the Spire. I was resistant because the game looked so ugly. Hideous UI, amateur art, whack animation. Unfortunately, it really is like that - but I understand the game itself is very well-made, so I’ll stick with it. I enjoyed Monster Train after all, and it has the same issues.

Maybe Valve could buy them.

Sigh deeply, rub their foreheads, and open their wallets.

And no ads. I do want them to succeed, but, yeah.

Right on man. Fuckin’ Buddhists. Probably don’t even use Linux.

Cool, now let’s see Boggle as an FPS.

And reasonably-priced love!
And a hard boiled egg!

Can I use it to pay for blackjack and hookers?

I can’t tell you how many highly-rated games I’ve had to pass on because the trees weren’t of sufficient fidelity.

Might as well link to it:
https://github.com/HarbourMasters/SpaghettiKart
You need to supply your own ROM of the correct version.

So Avowed, but with all the mechanical complication of Pillars? I dunno… I like isomorphic, but I’d probably try it.

The demo for the update of Camp Keepalive is worth checking out
https://store.steampowered.com/app/3702210/Camp_Keepalive_Endless_Summer_Demo/
It’s a nice, casual strategy game that still keeps you thinking.

Lol - somebody didn’t pay their graphic designer: “PUKE”.

Is that The Hulk?

Huh, I only just noticed that Tracer’s googles there are a nod to Sonic.

That’s some… uh… that’s some programmer art there.

Veilguard is a 3rd person action RPG, not a CRPG. It plays like God of War or something. It has lots of DA characters and lore, though.

I think the PC vs. console divide is relevant here. I’m not sure how advanced text entry on consoles is these days, but I imagine PCs have the advantage with keyboards. Maybe if they use voice recognition on the consoles? But AAA games usually target both, and if interacting with the model is clunky for a big chunk of your market then the big developers might not use the technology.
Of course, indie devs that only target PC can go wild.

I’ve got Pentiment and Persona 5 ready to go. I’ll probably start Pentiment first since it’s undoubtedly shorter.
Balatro looks really tempting, too, but I’d want that for my laptop or phone (?) and not my gaming PC.

I got a free copy with a graphics card I bought recently, but AAA games aren’t really my jam. OTOH, I would like to put the card through its paces… Chances are it will make me create yet another account somewhere to play it, so I probably won’t bother with it.

I loved Monster Train, and Slay the Spire has such a great reputation, but the art style is ass so I’ve been reluctant to pick it up (Monster Train’s is pretty bad too). This doesn’t look like much of an improvement, but perhaps gameplay trumps graphics again here.

Dwarf Fortress? Go hard or go home.

This version of Warcraft II has the map editor, right? I really enjoyed building my own tower defense scenarios.
I’ll pass otherwise.

Yeah, my main complaint with PoE 1 is the way it bludgeons you with lore. The writers are so excited to show off this massive world they’ve invented, they just aren’t very artful about it.

The tone is much less dour than the first one, and I think it does a better job introducing the world. It’s still a lot to take in, but all of the text has links you can click on that explain anything you don’t recognize.

I’ve been replaying Pillars of Eternity II - in fact I have the tavern music stuck in my head right now. Mostly I just need some CRPG gameplay, so I’m not doing anything wildly different with my character this time around. Maybe I should do an evil run…
Knowing how the ending works, I’m still not sure which faction to go with.

Probably Persona 5 at 60% off. I liked 4 and 5 has an incredible reputation.
Wasteland 3 is $8. Seems like a great value.

I’ll second Tyranny and Pillars 2.
Tyranny’s ending is… well… they tacked on some text - but it’s a great game otherwise.
PoE2 is more enjoyable than the first one, IMO, just for the lighter tone. They do a better job of explaining the world, too, because you aren’t bludgeoned with lore-dumps like in 1.

The only console I ever spent a lot of time with was the NES, so I’m not at all native to the modern XBox / Play Station controller with its 166 buttons. But I know that some games are best with a controller, so I bought a Steam Controller and an XBox controller. I made it most of the way through Nier Automata with the Steam Controller, but I put the game down for some reason or another. I also gave Hades (what I think was) a good effort, but I never made it out and I stopped caring.
The only game I’ve completed with a controller is Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons, which you really shouldn’t play with m+k, if it’s even possible. I’d never try to play an FPS with a controller.

There are actually speedruns of Brothers, so someone is replaying it.

smacks forehead
Quite right.

I gave it a shot because Bioware, but I didn’t stick with it because dialog choices are timed. I can see why, I think, but I was being picky and put it down for the moment.

Tyranny is so good, and I prefer it to the first Pillars of Eternity. Shame the ending is so abrupt.

I love Steins Gate, but the choices you make are so wildly disconnected from the consequences that I don’t think it really counts. It’s such a strange system.

So, Divinity Original Sin 4?

^Because BG3 is DOS3^

I fill in easier crosswords left-to-right, top-to-bottom.

I’m not sure if I’m enjoying it yet. I’m only 4 hours in and it feels like Divinity Original Sin 3 and not a Baldur’s Gate game. Maybe that’s fine, but it’s not what I was expecting.
The combat seems more complicated and I’m having to rest after even basic encounters, but I guess that’s the way BG1 was too.
Still messing with the graphics settings to get it to look decent and run ~60FPS on my creaky old Vega 56.