For me: Easily Portal 2.
A deeply rich story, funny dialogue, and great puzzles that will truly make your brain think. The story is very rich and spans across several different eras of Aperture history, going as far back as the 50s. The dialogue is funny and some of the lines are the most memorable in all of gaming (like the Cave Johnson lemon rant). And last but not least, the puzzles are great. They start off pretty simple, but as you progress further in the story, they get more and more complicated, especially when you get the repulsion gel and proposion gel. I feel like Portal 2 is the Gold Standard for puzzle games that every game that comes after it will be judged on.
Also, if you don’t own Portal 2 yet, now is a fantastic time to get it - it’s on sale for $1 on Steam, same with Portal 1. And if you want both games, the bundle containing both games is $1.50. Do not miss out on this offer, it’s so worth it.
If you already have beaten Portal 2 you should check out Portal Revolution. Free mod with voice acting and a lot of new puzzles.
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Oh man, Portal 1 was amazing. Amazing offer!
Okay you do some good advertising I’m considering the purchase
Don’t consider, act, that game fucks and it fucks hard.
My favorite moment of Portal 2 is easily Cave Johnson’s lemon rant. Easily one of the best quotes in all of video game history.
“All right, I’ve been thinking. When life gives you lemons? Don’t make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don’t want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life’s manager! Make life rue the day! It thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I’m the man who’s going to burn your house down! With the lemons! I’m going to get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down! [COUGHING]”
Absolutely golden.
Was that the same dude that was the lawyer in the British show ‘Outlaws’?
I swear they sound the same.
It’s J. K. Simmons, he was in a lot of stuff so probably.
Woah not at all who I thought, I thought it was Stephen Merchant.
Stephan Merchant didn’t voice Cave Johnston but he did voice Wheatley, another character from Portal 2.
Also, if I had to pick, resident evil 7 and 8. The best story games period and the best horror games period.
Go in cold! And definitely play Portal first. It’s really short.
I just bought it two weeks ago for 10$. Excellent game though. Well worth 2 coffees!
Stardew Valley.
Its revolver has continuously released huge updates for free and has commuted to never charging for dlc.
The games mechanics are pretty great and nothing in the game requires too much grinding to get.
Even when you “finish” the game, there are still things to do and starting a new files is always fun.
The characters are all great and have unique personalities. It really makes you feel like you are part of the town.
My wife and I have over 400 hours on a single file. It’s also enjoyable starting a new file. I like to challenge myself to see how quickly I can do certain objectives in the game.
It’s also decently cheap and has a huge community behind it.
The game is just perfect. Many farms were made and many hours spent.
My only complaint is that there isn’t more of the game 😂
Luckily mods solve this.
To anyone who hasn’t played this yet, if you buy it on console or mobile, the huge 1.6 patch is set to release November 4th.
From what I have seen, if you can play it on PC, do it, as you can get all kinds of mods and stuff that aren’t available on console. I played it on Switch years ago and then would see youtube videos of people playing the PC version and it looked like a different game altogether.
I bought it some time ago but I kind not got into it, and it saddens me because I only hear good things about it.
Any advice?
Well not every game is for everybody. This just might not be for you.
Without knowing you better, I’d advise things like.
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take it slow, there is no rush to do anything.
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it’s ok to sleep early if you can think of something to do.
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you can really lose in this game.
Thank you
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Crosscode, Disco Elysium, Outer Wilds, Celeste, Fallout: New Vegas
+1 for Crosscode! I will admit the terrain puzzles can feel tedious after a while, but goodness, this game has great mechanics, story, and charm. One of my favorite games of all time.
I am so excited for the next game coming out by Radical Fish Games.
S-tier list
I bought crosscode some months ago on GOG and I’m slowly working through it.
I’m constantly amazed at how it feels like a grand AAA mmorpg. The complexity of the maps is astounding (sometimes at a fault) and there is a lot of stuff to do. A tales of grindea on steroids, if you will
Strongly recommended if you enjoy the genre
Half life, all of them, in order
There’s only 2 right? Exculding That VR version
There are two expansions for the first one, Opposing Force and Blue Shift. These explore the same events, from the points of view of different characters.
After the second one there are also the two shorter, stand alone, stories, Episode One and Episode two. These continue the story from the point of view of the protagonist.
I think everyone should play factorio for at least a few hours. It will be some of the most interesting 17 months of their lives.
Is it a time lapse game? Where you play for like an hour, then suddenly the sun is down?
I would personally recommend Satisfactory over Factorio. I think it’s a more casual experience while still scratching that factory building itch.
Factorio is a casual game. You see a person with a massive base that makes a gazillion science packs a minute, don’t get intimidated. They have no clue what they’re doing either, and probably already forgot how a third of their factory is put together. They have just been in the game for longer.
I don’t mean less casual in that sense. I actually had 3 main points in mind that make satisfactory more casual.
First are the aliens. The evolution and pollution doesn’t stop which means in a way you are fighting against time. If you don’t keep up with it the aliens will attack and destroy your base. I know they can be turned off but the game is designed with their attacks in mind and you’re skipping entire production lines if you turn them off.
The second reason is factory building. I think the extra dimension in Satisfactory makes factory building much easier. If you run out of space horizontally, build up. In Factorio you better plan out how big your factory is going to be because if you run out of space you’re probably going to start spaghettifying your factory or you need to start tearing down parts of your factory to make more space. In my current satisfactory factory I just built a whole new level ontop of my old factory because I couldn’t be bothered to clean it up.
And the last point goes together with the previous point. You have so many things you need to produce. The entire belt production thing for example. If you want express belts you need to build the fast belts which needs the basic belts. If you want express splitters you’re going to have to build the fast splitter, which needs the basic splitter which requires basic belts. Meanwhile in Satisfactory if you want a faster belt you just need the new material for the belt. Factorio production pipelines are like a deep well while Satisfactory production lines are more like a wide puddle (that only towards the very end can go deep, like ficsonium fuel rods). Satisfactory has overall a wider variety of things to produce (if we exclude the tiered items in Factorio), but they’re much less dependent on each other. For example if your industrial beam production isn’t at peak performance that not going to stop you from getting the higher tier belts because they need aluminum which are built from a completely different raw material. Solve aluminum production and you get new belts. Compare that to Factorio where, lets say you want to start using express belts but you’ve been kinda winging your belt production. Well first you need to fix your fast belt production, which then means you need to fix your basic belt production which means you need to fix your iron production which means you have to scale up your iron mining.
The factory can grow over your head but Satisfactory still has easier production pipelines, easier factory planning and you can take however long you want to figure out how to build your factory. To me all of those things indicate that Satisfactory is a more casual experience.
Kerbal Space Program
OG Kerbal Space Program is the best. The sequel, Kerbal Space Program 2, had a lot of missing features from the original KSP, and it is still in Early Access. The developer, Intercept Games, was also closed by Take-Two Interactive, and this game has not had any major update in months. It is clear that Take-Two has completely abandoned KSP 2, and it is still on sale. But it might not be for much longer, because it is literally on life support at this point, only getting patches and bug fixes.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Kerbal Space Program 2 ends up getting delisted at some point in the future.
Am happy to concede that I’m just a dumb dumb, but to say that I was confused by both what to do and how to do it would be a wild understatement.
Terraria
Hollowknight my beloved
I would add Outer Wilds to the list.
You can really only play it once in a lifetime but I think it’s the best video game experiences available.
Honorable mention for Tunic and Cocoon for the same reason
I’ve tried to play it twice and barely make it 30 minutes in. Been meaning to try it again though because I keep hearing it’s amazing.
A couple of oldies, that deserve to still be played. Disclaimer: I played both games when they were already ~8 years old, and completely outdated in terms of technology.
Planescape: Torment
One of the best RPG ever created, and that is entirely for the world building and writing, and how much of the gameplay ends up being based on these rather than the combat mechanics (which are just ok)
Deus Ex
Again it was way ahead of its time in terms of world building and depth, and it was still an unashamed PC game, that dared to challenge its users a little and didn’t need to have a GUI that could be used with a gamepad, unlike the sequels.
Strongly agree. Deus Ex is still even now my favorite game ever. NPCs sound like real people and actually have meaningful things to say.
It does however have possibly the worst death animations in the history of gaming…
Updated my journal
Not everyone likes every genre of game - so here’s my grouped list:
The “I’m a nerd and like to build things and I like to watch lava lamps flow” Factorio
The “I enjoy tough but fair games that I can totally become OP in once I figure it out” Elden Ring
The “I just want to chill” game Stardew Valley
The “I like to build things” game minecraft Honorable mention-Terraria
The “Metroidvania” game Hollow Knight
The “Arpg” game Diablo 2 Honorable mention - PoE
The “I like action and smashing things in an open world” game Neir Automata Honorable mention - God of war (play one of the originals so you can 1st hate the remake, and then get to THAT point, and then happily eat crow and let Kratos be your baby daddy.
I keep getting stuck at the beginning in Nier Automata. Is there really no option to save until after like 30+ mins of gameplay?
Yup. There’s a story reason for it. It’s actually part of the charm of the game. But that first bit (which should be an intro cake walk, but isn’t) is a bad design choice IMO.
The game doesn’t punish you if you knock the difficulty down to easy for that section to get through it.
Unfortunately yes. Perfect dodging the first boss regularly gets you killed. So… Play worse. But I promise it’s the only part of the game like that.
Last Epoch is everything I wanted Diablo 3 to be without being a bit too much for me like PoE can be. Highly recommend it.
I have it. I don’t know why, but it won’t sink its claws into me. It’s a great game but something isn’t clicking for me. Most people like it though from what I can tell.
I would say, if you’re interested, the best way to see if it clicks is to give it’s best system it’s best chance. Which IMO is the skill spec. Find a class with a spell you like, give it a few points to transform and if it’s not getting you by then it never will.
For me it’s a perfect middle ground. More complex than Diablo but not as over the top as PoE. Not for everyone though, I totally respect that.
I have so many problems with Elden Ring. I know it is super popular, but the polish just isn’t there. Enemies hit you through walls and terrain, you will teleport to the ground dead sometimes when run around the many cliff faces, and most of the character builds seem weak compared to just strength great weapons.
I always hear stuff like this but in hundreds of hours of play on both PlayStation 5 and PC. I’ve never experienced any serious bugs. It’s so interesting to me that experiences can vary so much between people.
It depends on how you play for sure. But considering they hide items and secrets paths everywhere, the camera controls are horrendous. And I do not believe you managed to fight the fire giant and did not experience any bugs.
I’ve not even beaten the game and I’ve fallen through the map a few times randomly.
I’ve beaten the game about 6 times now and while I’ve certainly encountered minor glitches that made me laugh, I’ve never had issues that were game breaking at all. And the fire giant included.
Valheim
Valheim is definitely a must buy. It’s a survival game with crafting and building elements.
Valheim is one of the better in the genre. Idk why but the building is so satisfying!
And whoever likes Valheim should have a look at 7 Days to Die and The Forest (and probably The Forest 2, but I haven’t played that one yet).
“Anyone who likes survival crafting games will like other survival crafting games.”
But yes.
Dishonored!!
This one has been sitting in my steam backlog since the dinosaurs roamed the earth. I should get on that…
Same…
It’s really good. One of the only games where a pacifist run feels worth it, because the game design is done so well.
Play the game normally first though
Chess
Dev didn’t updated their game for 1000 years.
It have so much hacker.
Not Recommended by me.
Bullshit. They patched the vertical castling exploit in the 70s.
What about En Passant. Everyone exploit it.
Ah, a fellow Krabbé connoisseur!
