Wait, fallout 4 didn’t do the ending slideshow? That’s an iconic part of the series! I’m so glad I stopped buying Bethesda games.

Why not make it a full MMO, while you’re at it? Hogwarts Legacy 2 could be the WoW-killer we’ve been waiting 20 years for!

Bastion, etc, are from SuperGIANT Games.

I should add that I’m using the GOG version

That might be your problem. For one thing, the tutorial indeed continues after you escape Privateer’s Hold, and among other things, tells you how to fast travel. You are absolutely not intended to walk places on the world map, even though it is technically possible.

https://www.dfworkshop.net/migrating-away-from-gog-cut/

“If you play using the “GOG Cut” release of Daggerfall Unity, please consider this version is now almost two years out of date and comes preloaded with dozens of mods. It’s buggy, slow, and completely changes how the game looks and plays. The Daggerfall Unity development team did not assemble the “GOG Cut” release and in no way recommend it to play Daggerfall Unity.”

For reference, the GOG Cut uses version 0.13.5, and you can see on that page that DFU recently released version 1.0.

Playing unmodded DFU, I do agree with many of your criticisms. The game is very punishing, the full tutorial still doesn’t explain many important game mechanics (like the need to rest regularly, or that you really ought to buy a cart asap), character creation is extremely obtuse, and the amount of freedom at the beginning of the game is a bit overwhelming. Still, I found that after I got to a big city, joined a guild, and started doing quests the game starts coming together. I’m still not sure how much I like it, myself, but there’s clearly a ton of depth here, if you’re willing to take the time to learn the systems.

Did you figure out that you’re intended to rest in dungeons to refill your resource pools? That was something of a revelation for me.

Daggerfall Unity is extremely impressive from what I’ve seen of it so far. I am interested in what he comes up with.

Yes, and the latest version, too. Silly me assuming the version on GoG would be kept up to date…thankfully I didn’t lose too much time.

I’m trying to get into Daggerfall. I probably wouldn’t have got past character creation without a guide, and I died an embarrassing number of times in the intro dungeon, but once I got to town and figured out how to pick up quests things started to come together. We’ll see how far I get.

This sort of nonsense is one of the reasons I mostly don’t buy new games anymore.

Hegemony: Wars of Ancient Greece

I played it years ago when it came out and it’s still really good. It’s an indie grand strategy game with low production values but a game play loop I find very satisfying. The fact that it’s played on a realistic map of ancient Greece adds a lot of flavor and I love how the geography actually has important implications for strategy.

Sounds kind of like gambling to me. Put a lot of money in and maybe get something cool out of it. Thinking of it that way at least makes some sort of sense.

Every time I read about this game I wonder who the hell is giving them all this money.

Maybe this isn’t the case in your neighborhood but my local grocery stores have racks of gift cards, including for Steam. I know people who have similar concerns as your dad, so they just buy Steam credit for themselves.

You’re thinking of Slay the Spire, I believe. Completely unrelated.

I’m playing Starcraft 1 again. We’ll see how far I get this time. I’m not certain I’ve ever finished all the way through Brood War without cheats.

Three other competitors didn’t survive what were supposed to be non-lethal qualifier duels on the day before the finals. One player tragically died right after winning a duel to a random explosion from their Goblin Rocket Boots. Another Goblin malfunction killed a player who was an official spectator for the fights.

I am so glad I clicked through. This is great stuff.

I’m not quite old enough to have played it on release, but I think you’re right that System Shock was a game with a lot of amazing ideas that was limited by the technology of the day. I was very happy to see such an authentic remake, which was clearly made by people who cared deeply about the source material.

Interesting that you interpret leaning to peek around corners as a modern convenience when it actually was in the original. The portrait in the top left of the original UI shows the player’s current posture.

while new signups are no longer allowed, existing users will be able to finish out their two-year term.

So existing contracts aren’t affected, they just aren’t renewing them or writing any new ones.

Majesty: the Fantasy Kingdom Sim

A RTS/Sim hybrid in which you play as the king of a cliche fantasy realm with the gimmick that your direct control is limited. You don’t have an army and instead have to hire adventurers who are all AI controlled and need to be bribed into doing what you want. The game can be frustrating but it has a ton of charm and there’s just nothing out there quite like it.