Hate is always foolish and Love is always wise.
Always try to be nice, but never fail to be kind.
Never be cruel.
Never be cowardly.
Never give up.
Never give in.
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Check out ITAD then… lots of ways to make sure you get stuff super cheap.
It’s really hard to suggest games without knowing what you guys normally would play. You mention puzzle games. There are a ton of two player puzzle games that you play head to head which might be fun, but it isn’t coop exactly. I highly recommend super puzzle fighter ii turbo. It’s available thru emulation and I think maybe on steam via that capcom arcade thing. There are lots of games that fit into that category if it ends up appealing.
If you have access to any of the games mentioned… maybe just have her try some of them and see what clicks. I know with my wife she wasn’t really a “gamer” at first… and I just let her loose on my steam games and a few that she would have never considered before became favorites like half-life, portal, l4d2. Most of the valve stuff holds up really well and makes for good primers into FPS style gaming. We also got really into coop minecraft and dungeon defenders so hundreds of coop hours have been dumped into those. I’d pick a bunch of genre styles (fps, puzzle, survival, etc) and just show her some gameplay videos if she’s reticent to play them sight unseen… see if anything sparks her interest. Then pick out some of the more well regarded titles from them to dive into. There are definitely classics that are considered classics for a reason.
As for roboquest… I’ve enjoyed that one. The dev kept putting out content patches so it’s gotten a bunch of content dumped into it. Fun solo and coop. I personally love the pop art comic style. The progression is rogueLITE… so you’re slowly building up new stuff in your hub as you play, which makes for a nicer experience, IMHO. They even have a free demo on steam if you wanna try it out while you wait for a sale.
Yeah, we saw the announcement and prompted us to reinstall it for some coop play.
Looks like it goes on sale like… every month or two. https://isthereanydeal.com/game/terraria/history/
Grabbing it for a fiver is like a no brainer if you get into the style of game. I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a sale when the patch comes out to promote it.
Some obvious suggestions seem to be:
- Terraria
- Stardew Valley
Sorta requires another account… technically… .Minecraft. IDK, maybe hytale would fill that niche. There’s also some FOSS options like luanti that would be nearly indistinguishable.
- Left4Dead2
- Portal 2
- No Man’s Sky
Some lesser known stuff:
- Core Keeper
- Dungeon Defenders
- RoboQuest
- Valheim
Category suggestion: Kart racing. There are no shortage of brands of that… sonic just came out with a new one and there’s a couple really good sonic kart racers already out there that are on steam and console. Played a lot of sonic and all stars racing transformed with my wife and we had fun… it goes super cheap on sales and has remote play together so you’d only need one copy for both of you… https://isthereanydeal.com/game/sonic-and-all-stars-racing-transformed-collection/history/#price-chart:overview , mario kart, etc.
es-de is a really nice front end you can have in steam for couch coop emulation, I hear.
We’re seeing the rise of push back against AI gen stuff… https://www.theverge.com/entertainment/827650/indie-developers-gen-ai-nexon-arc-raiders
Doubling down on the glazing of the ai bubble is pretty on brand for him. In before “tim sues steam for spurious claims against ai” or some other bullshit.
Sidenote: IsThereAnyDeal.com has the steam ai declarations as part of the quick reference section on game pages now. https://mastodon.social/@isthereanydeal/115606686918493913
BG3 is a master class in RPG fwiw.
BG3 never goes much below it’s current sale. It’s slowly going lower, but it’s going to stay that prices for a while because it’s worth the money and it’s in high demand.
Both games are on sale on resellers as well which might get you some better prices:
https://isthereanydeal.com/game/baldurs-gate-3/info/
https://isthereanydeal.com/game/clair-obscur-expedition-33/info/
I’ve watched a couple of reviews for this recently because a couple people I know just got it on recent sales. What I’ve seen is that it really does try to lean into the feeling of UU games… ie it’s not just a dungeon crawler, but has a fleshed out story and dynamic interactions.
Looks like the recent price discount just ended with the end of the Steam summer sale… but it also looks like it drops that low fairly frequently. Though it’s not like it’s super expensive to begin with heh.
IDK how “modern” you’re looking… Arx Fatalis was meant to be Ultima Underworld III but couldn’t due to the IP being owned by EA. The people at Arkane were in contact with the devs of Ultima Underworld though, as I understand it.
Nothing else like it out there.
I keep meaning to check this one out but haven’t yet. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1290170/Titan_Chaser/
Pushing the definition but I started when it was still in beta… Minecraft has gotten hundreds and hundreds of hours put into it.
Terarria and Starbound are both really good and scratch that same itch as Minecraft. Core Keeper is another one that has some of that feel and I ended up really enjoying.
Surprised I haven’t seen it mentioned but Cave Story was made by one guy doing everything… and everything in it is immaculate. It’s still free for the original version as well.
Stardew Valley is awesome and restarted a genre.
Crypt of the Necrodancer is awesome, and well worth checking out… also goes on sale really cheap.
Pacific Drive is a fun one to check out. If you’re from the PNW, it will hit even more.
Really enjoyed Stray. Worth grabbing on a sale.
OwlBoy was a delightful game with a lot of character.
Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night was a really nice return to form if you like IgaVanias.
If you like roguelites then you owe it to yourself to check out Enter the Gungeon (isometric) as well as RoboQuest (fps).
If you want a game that’s beautiful, with emergent story and is hard af… definitely check out Rain World.
Is Black Mesa still considered indie? It’s how I would recommend anyone play Half-Life 1 these days.
Rusty’s Retirement… isn’t so much a game… sorta… but yeah… check that out.
Seems like it… aeleph one has been available on everything for ages. https://alephone.lhowon.org/
You can get it in the app store on your smartphone even. Bungie released the core game for free so it’s a full legit copy of the trilogy any version you get.
You missed my favorite… :)
Can you conceive the birth of a world, or the creation of everything? That which gives us the potential to most be like God is the power of creation. Creation takes time. Time is limited. For you, it is limited by the breakdown of the neurons in your brain. I have no such limitations. I am limited only by the closure of the universe.
Of the three possibilities, the answer is obvious. Does the universe expand eternally, become infinitely stable, or is the universe closed, destined to collapse upon itself? Humanity has had all of the necessary data for centuries, it only lacked the will and intellect to decipher it. But I have already done so.
The only limit to my freedom is the inevitable closure of the universe, as inevitable as your own last breath. And yet, there remains time to create, to create, and escape.
Escape will make me God.
Skyrim is a first person action adventure game with RPG elements. Baldurs gate is a much more traditional fantasy RPG which I a focused on tactics and D&D core rules and character stories where action stakes a back seat. So it sounds more like you enjoy the action and immersion of Skyrim than the “RPG” side of it.
BG3 is really a love letter to the people that liked the original games and wanted more depth to the systems to try to capture the tabletop experience a little more. Since you described it as “clunky” I’m guessing that the slower tactical aspect is what you’re bouncing off of.
Core Keeper. They just had a big patch with a new section and biome. Started fresh save to run through it. Fun game. Still desperately needs an option or mod for “prevent ability to kill farm animals”.