I get that people don’t like it for a wide variety of reasons. However, there are 2 things I absolutely adore about it:

1. The combat. Not so much the clunky clicking, but the way it strong-arms you into engaging with the alchemy and bestiary like an actual witcher would have to. Witchers don’t stand a chance against most of the monsters they fight without those stupidly potent potions and acute knowledge of their weaknesses.

2. The atmosphere. The game may be ugly up close, but every single map, every environment oozes with dreary medieval vibes or swampy fantasy. I don’t even think I can say that it’s good “for a low budget game” because the atmosphere stands the test of time. The developers had an idea for how the game should feel as soon as they started designing it and it shows.

I went back to play the first 2 games before replaying the third and finally finishing CP2077 a few years ago because I wanted to see how CDPR’s skills changed, and honestly? They haven’t, at least not in regards to making a game immersive. The only thing that’s changed is the budget and scope of their games because holy hell I’ll be damned if every one of CDPR’s major releases hasn’t been among the most immersive video games ever created.

Developed in UE5, I’m assuming? That’d be an unfortunate probability. CP2077 was the best looking game and the most immersive game I’ve ever played

ehhhhhhh

I mean Ciri does but she’s a child throughout the books.

Yennefer and Triss are almost only as independent as their insatiable lust for Geralt lets them be. Kind of like Triss and Shani in the Witcher 1 but I’d argue they’re worse in that game than in the books

If you’re avoiding the first two Witcher games because they’re somehow not cinematic, you’re sorely mistaken.

Both of those games are incredibly atmospheric to the point of mastery. (tbf you have to be able to forgive the character models in the first game and that can be admittedly difficult because HOLY HELL ZOLTAN ARE YOU OKAY)

also wtf do you mean “masculine indulgences?”

What a bold-faced clearly obvious motherfucking lie.

Rockstar has released only 2 full games in the past 13 years because everything they’ve done since then has been funded by microtransactions. The price of entry is negligible to them when whales pay for multiple copies of the game every fuckin month.

All of fucking Bloodborne. Fast travel is great. Building into the narrative where you don’t tell the story directly? Fuck that.

I had to remember that I bought an Index and Steam Deck on Steam so that has definitely inflated the amount I’ve spent compared to the 3rd party valuation lol

Rainbow Six: Siege

People who play it like COD are the worst players in the game. Everything is designed to reward methodical, team-focused strategy so you can get the upper hand on people who don’t pay attention and try to rush everything.

Interested in why you call them patriotic “undertones” lol. The patriotism is overt to the point that if you miss that it’s satire you may be missing out on half of the experience of the game

You might love and hate my answer: Titanfall 2

It’s literally both of these things. Pilots play the extremely fast, twitch-shooting superhuman game while Titans play the slow-paced boots-on-the-ground heavy-weighted gameplay.

It’s the best multiplayer shooter of all time and it survives thanks to the Northstar launcher on PC

I’m curious- what PvE mode were you hoping for? Like some kind of expansion on what T-hunt used to be?

The ranked pool is limited to paying players still, which is a good way to help keep cheaters out

Splitgate was fun. I played it for a while back when it came out and then when its popularity surged. Great concept, great execution, great arcade-style gameplay.

Favorite? Fuck if I know

But the Gauss Cannon from DOOM 2016? Siege mode? *CHUNK* *GUNK*\ *beedleedeep* BOOOOSCHHHHHGGRRRRZZZLLLKK baron gibs everywhere The ballista from DOOM Eternal got nothing on it.

Also, there were a ton of fun guns from Bulletstorm, the game about stupid but fun guns. The quad barrel shotgun stands out in my memory quite fondly.

It’s hard to forget the amazing times to be had with the duel-wielding in Wolfenstein: The New Order. Carrying two of those semi-automatic shotguns in that game meant you could liberate nazis quite enthusiastically from their skin, blood, and organs very quickly, and very cathartically. I need to replay that game.

On the subject of nazis, I can’t forget the Wunderwaffe DG-2 from Call of Duty. Yeah, I know it’s Call of Duty, but I got to watch a dozen or so nazis’ heads explode simultaneously while they were paralyzed. That was great.

I also think there’s a very strong case to be made that the greatest gun in any FPS game is the one that drives what is arguably the greatest video game ever created: the portal gun.

Thinking about multiplayer games is a slightly different beast though.

I got so much mileage out of the Cold War in Titanfall 2 - a burst fire, energy impact-grenade launcher. It was so much fun. But moreso than that, I think I loved the Double Take - a projectile-based double-barrel DMR. It took skill to get hits and even more skill to maximize damage by getting a hit with both bullets at the same time, and while flying around the map either jumping off a wall or Spider-maning around with the best-implemented grapple hook in any multiplayer game there was nothing that felt the same.

There’s a lot of things you can do with a hatchet… and a Nazi -BJ Blaskowitz

That was definitely a bold design decision, but I’m glad it paid off for Gearbox. Never before had I played a first person shooter from the perspective of an underpaid pumpkin.

Purely from a game design standpoint and ignoring all corporate and sales considerations, Valve.

Half-Life, Half-Life 2, and Half-Life: Alyx are literally three separate Citizen Kanes of video games. All took immense steps forward in the direction of removing the layers of abstraction between video games and human experience.

From a meta perspective that considers things like the process of game development and the accessibility of video games on PC, also Valve. Steam has done wonders in the way of unifying (to the best of Valve’s ability) the user experience of DRM into a very manageable interface. Proton has taken the barriers to entry into the realm of video games down to the fucking studs. The Steam Deck is laying the foundation for eliminating the dominance of any one video game hardware manufacturer.

I’d be hard-pressed to say any other development studio has been more fundamental to the gaming industry period, let alone PC gaming.

Come to think of it, why did Sony even bother designing a new controller for the playstation? Atari had that handled back in the 80’s so what good did they think they were doing.

EDIT: Holy hell I just realized how insane it was for Sholes, Soule, and Glidden to develop the QWERTY typewriter. We already had pens! What a waste of time!

Pretty sure they meant a controller designed for use while not hunching over a desk

I’ve spent boatloads more time watching football than playing football, too.

Also, with Rainbow 6: Siege, there’s so many ways to play the game that I love watching videos to get ideas for new strategies to try.

Lastly, contrary to popular belief, a lot of games actually require thinking about what you’re doing. Time spent playing is not really time spent spacing out so I will happily watch videos about a game I like to play when I don’t have the energy to actually focus on playing them.

Dude you must be so good at fractions now!!!

Yay! Just, please don’t leave it untouched. Mild spoiler, but the game tells you how long you should play each session and the first is 30 minutes. So please give it a 30 minute chance to grab you

Most of the really good games have been posted already, so here are three that you should play regardless if you’ve never heard of them before:

1. Frog Fractions
2. Duty Calls: The Calm Before the Storm
3. GAME OF THE YEAR 420 BLAZE IT

Check them all out because they’re short and free

Superbrothers: Sword and Sworcery. This game is fairly old now (like maybe 15 years) and I’ve only played it once and it took like 4 hours of total playtime, but it remains among the most memorable games I’ve witnessed. I HIGHLY recommend it.

I’m sorry, I don’t mean to say nobody would or should care I just mean my head has been so filled with anxious thoughts that hearing about a corporate video game not doing well profit-wise sounds like an onion article headline to me.

Again, I don’t mean to say it’s irrelevant it just sounds irrelevant

Reading this headline feels so fucking surreal right now. Who could possibly care?

I mean I guess I understand that, though I haven’t bought any passes and still think the game is great

Monthly subscription to what? The Battle Pass?

I’m a huge fan of Burnout Paradise. The crash physics and cameras are so addicting that I’ll drive up and down the same street just flipping my car on its roof using the same split ramp just to see the carnage. The driving is a wonderful arcadey feel that makes insane turns easy to pull off, and the crashes make those insane turns addicting to completely fail.

Many people say the early Burnout games are better, but I’ve never played them and Paradise has remained entertaining for 17 years

You’re happy they’re removing something you could easily ignore but that would otherwise make other people happy?

A FANTASTIC underground couch co-op game is “Super Space _____” (read: Super Space Blank).

Imagine Asteroids, but everyone is controlling a cannon on the same ship, and the only means of propelling the ship is Newton’s third law. When your cannon hits an asteroid, it turns your color and when the asteroid leaves the game space the points for that asteroid go to the person whose color the asteroid is. If the ship leaves the game area, the game is over. It’s the best example of co-ompetitive I’ve ever seen.

It’s only available on Digipen’s website (link) since it was a student project but it’s magnificent for up to 4 players

I think I agree with you. I was honestly extremely tempted to buy a PS5 for the single player sequels Sony’s put out recently (Horizon FW, God of War R, and SM 2) but it’s become clear they’re all coming to PC so fuck it I can be patient.

Here’s hoping Sony wises up and greenlights a PS5 (with a lil PC side release) remaster of Bloodborne

How is this the end of the cycle? Is it because there are rumored mid-cycle upgrades like the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X coming soon, or have console cycles really shortened from 7/8 years to 4?

Fred & Bread looks amazing though I have not played it. Two penguins who are tied together with a rope have to climb a mountain together using nothing but each other and momentum

Spoilers? Man I finished the game and I still have no idea what’s going on

Eternal is one of my favorite games of all time, and it has a massive leg up on this game. Firstly, it seemed like a complete surprise when it was announced. The gap between DOOM 3 and Eternal was like 16 years. It’s been 5 years since Eternal was announced, and 3 since it was released; I’m convinced passion projects are not released on timelines that coincide with shareholder expectations. Not to say Dark Ages can’t be good, but the second big red flag about this game is that now it’s owned by Microsoft and that’s it’s own can of worms.

There is absolutely nothing appealing about this to me. If I was at all interested in this 2 hour cutscene I’d just go watch a Fast and Furious movie for 10% of the price

I’d venture to say that ID has not yet released a bad DOOM game, however they did almost make Call of DOOM. Under Microsoft’s leadership I’d say they’re at risk of making the worst DOOM game ever, but we’ll have to wait and see

Inb4: all nostalgia hype, solid core gameplay, nothing new or groundbreaking, F2P multiplayer, battlepass grindfest. Bonus points if it’s an open world.

Microsoft has become all-too predictable and I have absolutely no faith that this game will be anything greater than Halo Infinite

I played the shit out of 2 as well. When 3 came along it had literally all of the improvements I wanted to see, and it felt so much better to boot, but the core gameplay had grown stale because of how much time I spent in the second