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.
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!
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.
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
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
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
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.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but doesn’t the lore of the Legend of Zelda change from game to game based on whatever flavor of knight-saves-princess story framing best suits the gameplay progression? How is this going to be a unique movie? Why does it benefit from the Zelda branding other than to generate franchise hype?
I played God of War (2018) a few months ago without any more context than what is known about Kratos in the public eye. The 2018 remake does not tell you what Kratos did, but it shows you how it affects him. Flawlessly. This game nails the “show don’t tell” approach like so few do. If you like narrative driven games, or want a good modern story about a man trying to be a good father, or like well-designed action games, or like norse mythology, this game fucking rocks.
I can’t think of a game that Valve has released just to make money except for Artifact which totally flopped.
From what I understand, Valve has a non-hierarchical internal personnel structure and projects are started because someone has an idea that other people at the company like and want to work on.
Half-Life 3 won’t get traction inside Valve unless it has something to push the envelope like the other main-line games had. Half-Life had unrivaled first person storytelling. Half-Life 2 has unrivaled physics to play with. Half-Life Alyx had an interactive environment unlike anything else that exists even still. My money says if Valve can’t think of something gameplay-wise that’s as enticing right now as any of the previous games had when they were released, they don’t care that the story is still on a cliffhanger.
I’m curious- what PvE mode were you hoping for? Like some kind of expansion on what T-hunt used to be?