Ooh you should give the 2nd another chance, they f’ed up the combat (I think they wanted to copy Souls games) but the story is great and honestly it still looks fine for a 2011 game

It’s more war/politics oriented, and the story is about clearing your name and recovering memory and less about saving someone/the world

If the combat part is the issue, some mods can improve that (or make you hard to kill)

I have trouble letting 2 years go by not playing it, I can’t wait for the remake of the first one

Looking at the tiny lighthouse : “damn the water must be really cold”

Thanks for sharing your road trip, I love LiS, I’m currently re-downloading LiS 2 (slow internet so it takes me a dozen of hours)

Even worse than my backlog, there are all the comfort games I play every few years and which takes me months to complete (cause some of them are fairly long like The Witcher 3) and thanks to my crappy memory, multiple choices and mods I can enjoy them as much every time

Life Is Strange

https://www.gog.com/fr/game/life_is_strange_complete_season

It’s not an action/combat game but there are violent parts in the story

That’s what EU is for (in Europe), but honestly, even as an avid gamer, there are other priorities, even in the IT/digital department (european alternatives, open source, research, …), so as of now I keep voting with my wallet

Even on Windows I’m scared to update them

Last time I did (a year ago) I had a performance drop and had to rollback

I’d suggest Helldivers 2, Darktide or Vermintide 2, World War Z

I haven’t played Space Marines 2 (yet) but it’s definitely on our backlog with some friends

Dying Light is good fun too in coop

The first Witcher game is quite old but you could like the gameplay (it’s not action oriented, unlike the 2 following Witcher games)

It’s honestly not great looking but the story is great, and who knows, you might fall in love with a great franchise :)

I’ll second Dragon Age since it’s less action oriented than Mass Effect (which is great but OP seems more interested in strategy/management than shooting)

Mass Effect has a “tactical pause” feature though, but it feels less Baldur-like :)

Prey 2 : https://youtu.be/BPkHZfjK5z4

Some friends and I were so hooked on the gameplay demo (we’re big fans of the Mass Effect trilogy), then it was cancelled and replaced by Prey, which was very different (more horror centric and less space opera)

Less than 1000€ for dozens of games I’ve played, I think the average price I payed is 15€, so I don’t feel robbed

I mostly buy on GOG whenever possible though, even if it means I have to wait a year or two

Woops, typo

Odyssey is more recent but Black Flag definitely has better storms

I played stealth games like Hitman like a mass murderer.

I also play the “infiltrator” class in Mass Effect without tactical cloak. I mean it’s a mix of soldier and engineer, why should it be focused on stealth ?

I bought Grim Dawn a few weeks ago, but I see it more as a Torchlight/Diablo-like and not a third or first person melee action game (like The Witcher, Dragon’s Dogma, …) and I was looking for something fun / light / even button smashing with good action :)

I’ll check Nine Sols, thanks, but the Sekiro mention scares me a bit ^^’

Thanks, I’m not a big fan of anime and this one looks like “over the top” anime ^^’

I remember seeing a ton of Ys games on GOG, the combat looks like fun though, it’s just too much “cliche” for me

I like DBZ games though, I grew up with Dragon Ball

Thanks, I think I’ll try the demo (a good thing it still exists, even if it’s too rare)

I’ve never understood the deal with the Final Fantasy world : is it medieval fantasy ? Is it sci-fi ? Is it real-time or turn-based ? Is it dark themed or light humor ? It’s kinda all the over the place from an external point of view, but this one could do the trick

Thanks, never heard of it, I’m gonna check that

It seems like a good pick indeed, not as good as previous Obsidian games in terms of story from what I ve heard, but it seems good for fun combat

KCD had me interested at first but it seems to be really “simulation” oriented, even more so than RDR2 (need to manage health/food/sleep, craft potions just to save, …)

I should have mentionned I already spent 500 hours on it, but anything similar would be great in terms of gameplay (I don’t need/want ultra complex/hardcore game mechanics)

The Witcher 3, followed by the Mass Effect trilogy (I consider it as a whole)

And honestly, Cyberpunk 2077 could complete the top 3

But if I have to consider multiplayer games, with 3000+ hours on Warframe (considering I haven’t touched it for years), I guess it could also be considered my favorite (I think I also spent 1000h on ME3 multi)

If your kill things before they can hit you, defence is worthless

And that comes from a guy who almost always plays as a tank

Too few games now (from all I’ve been playing) care about tanking, one of the few exception I’ve seen is Warframe, because they crank up everything to 11 (DPS, crowd control, tanking, …)

I’d need to replay it (which I might this year) to point out specific parts, but I remember some dialogues/characters being a bit “childish”. I’m not talking “butt stallion” childish but different from the Fallout humour (and yes Fallout can be funny too)

I mean they could sell me this as a trailer for a Borderlands game : https://youtu.be/zNmjNA6dtEA

Outer Worlds had the same issue, the Borderlands “humour” and bright colors didn’t mix with the “Fallout in space” overall theme

• Shadow Warrior 2 (avalaible on GOG)
• Half-Life 2 has a mod for campaign coop (Synergy if I recall correctly)
• Lots of zombie games : Left4dead 2, Killing Floor 2, …
• Borderlands

First Person but not totally shooter :

• Dying Light / Dead Island
• Vermintide / Darktide

Technically not a FPS though

Todd, are you trying to sell us another version of Skyrim ?

Moto Racer 2 soundtrack, my favorite ska punk “album”

I’d say they offer two different sides of the franchise, like Alien vs Aliens, but both brilliant, and both scary/traumatic to the then young generation

Mass Effect did it quite well (at least some of them like Tali), although with a touch of cringe

And The Witcher obviously

And of course some story games like Life Is Strange, but they’re character-focused so it makes sense

I’d say mid too about Outer Worlds, but the first half is above average IMHO. It’s the second half which felt half baked and lowered my appreciation.

I’d prefer some developers set their mind on a good/great 20h experience if they don’t have the budget for more, instead of trying to align themselves with the big players.

I guess there wil be a plethora of mods/reshades to alter the color palette on nexusmods

Personnaly I don’t like the grey/brown monochrome trend to make things look grim, but over-saturated isn’t my cup of tea for fantasy either

Except for TW3: Blood & Wine of course cause it made sense

Damn, Steam algorithm just spoiled it for you : Stellar Blade is part of the Sonicverse 🤫