In my opinion one of the greatest games but also one of the saddest. If you already own the game then I highly recommend all the DLC as they all bring some interesting scenarios to the game.
Trombone Champ is the world's first trombone-based rhythm music game. Unlike most music games, you can freely play any note at any time. You're not just following along with the music, you're actually playing the music!
Wildermyth is a lovely combination of storytelling and xcom-style combat, with a genealogy system and chances for your heroes (and their descendants) to reappear in future games.
It's a turn-based traditional roguelike + dungeon crawler, i.e. there are no in-game permanent upgrades to make the characters stronger, and only you the player get "stronger" as you become more knowledgeable. If you are into that kind of game, this is absolutely one of the best I've played!
The developer Evan has been continuously updating the game for the past decade, with a new, sixth playable hero scheduled to release later this year. The game is also free and open source, so you can even play the full game for free. I bought the Steam version (and has sunk 100+ hrs into it) because it's so rare for me nowadays to find a game I don't get tired of after a handful of hours. (Not saying short games are necessarily bad though, some of my faves are very short too.)
I honestly couldn't even tell you what it's about, but it's one of my favourite games ever. You can die from reading a book that's too sad and if you do it right, you can smell communism.
Hybrid tower defense and 3rd person shooter/slasher. This game is... fucking stupid! Like by design - your character is a moron, and says some of the dumbest shit you'll hear come out of a protagonist's mouth. So with this game, you get a high dose of face-palmy humor paired with orc arms/heads/bones/etc flying across your screen after they get blended up by all your traps. Gameplay is surprisingly solid; you'll get some time to think and plan where to place traps and obstacles; then you'll get hit with a wave of orcs and other fantasy critters and try to manually pick off any that make it through the traps. There are a couple more games in this series - imo #1 is the best, but if you like this one, keep the others on your radar too.
You're a viking that died and you find yourself in a purgatory called "Valheim" to prove you're worthy of Valhalla. Another survival builder - with a somehow charming combination of really bad graphics paired with really good lighting. The combat is kinda clunky, but the other elements of this game make up for it. Well worth $10!! Don't forget to turn your music on before summoning a boss.
I have a couple hundred hours on Valheim from the past couple years, and I love it. I haven't played since Ashlands came out, but I'm excited to jump into it at some point.
Sci-fi survival builder: you're on a massive spacecraft that ends up crash landing on an ocean planet; your goal is to figure out wtf happened and find a way off the planet. This game is 80% feel-good tropical diving simulator; and 20% thalasaphobic deepsea horror. This has become one of my go-to "idk what to play" games that I keep returning to for a nice digital tropical vacation... with a dash of fleeing in terror from, uh... spoilers. No really though, if you don't already know this game's story, DO NOT start looking up videos and posts etc about it - just buy it and dive in.
The audio in this game really seals the deal. You're just swimming along collecting resources and hear a terrifying roar. But you look around and can't see where it came from... Do you keep going or nope the fuck outta there and go take a breather in your life pod for 20 mins while your heart rate comes back down?
Sci-fi, you're dropped down to a lush alien planet to do what humans do best: strip all of its natural resources! Combat is limited, but boils down to fighting off wild animals - the main gist of the game is building and optimizing things like miners/conveyor belts/smeltors/assemblers/etc to automate the pillaging of the environment with increasing efficiency... which admittedly sounds more like work than play, but this title caught me a bit off guard with how fun and - true to its name - satisfying it is play.
It's a 3D first person game instead of a 2D isometric, and most of the differences stem from that. More manual building (they added blueprints but I don't know how good they are), infinite resource sources which means setting up a mining outpost is permanent. Much less focus on fighting wildlife, though that is present.
Overall, it's a much more relaxing, slower paced game than Factorio. Both are good at different aspects of the same thing.
Being able to build vertically makes it a very different experience. Using a hyper tube chain to yeet yourself all the way across the map is chef's kiss.
The blueprints are helpful for mid to late game when you need to set up dozens of the same thing. It's not a perfect system, but can definitely be a time saver.
The combat is totally different. There's no raid/defense mechanism. The mobs have a fixed spawn point. They'll stop respawning once you start building around that point. Once you learn the appropriate attack/dodge maneuver for each type, they're barely even a nuisance to kill.
This is basically "Honey I Shrunk The Kids" as a survival builder. Set in the 80s, you and up to three others are teens that miniaturized by... well you gotta figure out the how and why, and how to return to normal size by navigating the back yard of a scientist with some knowledge on the tech. TBH, I didn't really expect much from this game, but found myself having a ridiculous amount of fun with it. It is REALLY well made - the attention to detail is insane, from the yard design to build pieces. I wish I had this game when I was a kid, but still enjoyed the hell out of it in my 30s.
If you've somehow managed to avoid Witcher until now, it's a dark medieval fantasy, 3rd person, open world RPG based on Norse mythology. Lots of political intrigue, choices that actually impact outcomes in game. Fantastic voice acting, story, soundtrack, and combat/gameplay mechanics. This is one of the best games on the market - if you don't already have it, now's the time! There are also two DLCs that are each the size and scope of an entire standalone game - don't miss those!
I started replaying Witcher 3 a week or so ago. It really is an amazing game. But I will admit that the combat is just ok. It's not awful, but it sure as heck isn't great. The magic and other mechanics, I'd also call them just OK, maybe even occasionally bordering on less-than-good. Geralt's movement, even just traversing or trying to loot things, can often be slippy and weird.
Thing is, all of the other parts that are important for a great RPG and narrative just shine SO much more brighter that they really make up for the very mediocre gameplay aspects. It really is more than the sum of its parts.
Once you get a hold on dodging/parrying/etc, you'll feel like a damn ninja, especially on harder difficulties; but leading up to that, yeah combat is... OK. Also don't miss out of experimenting with different builds - one of my favorites optimized using bombs, which later into it makes you a walking B-52 - fun build if you enjoy clearing trash via a wave of pure chaos, then mopping up the stronger guys by way of the sword.
And yeah, the whole package is what counts here: Witcher 3 is a fantastic all around game. It isn't without it's imperfections, but they are barely noticeable amidst the tsunami of ridiculously high quality you'll be hit with from all the other features.
For sure! And as much negative I said about the combat, it's punchy, never drags on, and the enemies you fight are usually all set up well as part of the story. They're not just random mobs, so even the fighting has good narrative weight even if it's not the mechanically deepest ever.
This time through, I've been making different choices and stopping to explore more and take in more of the world. First time I played it, I had NO IDEA that if you stopped and listened to some npc convos you can pick up quests that way! Doesn't even really feel like I'm playing it over again, or retreading the same stuff. There's SO much in it.
It helps if you know the lore, because at the beginning there is a scene where someone asks you about decisions you made in the first two parts. But I didn't know anything and just guessed.
But after that you don't really need to know what happens before
Witcher 2's controls are a bit janky, but it's a solid game in and of itself for the story alone; if you can stomach some pretty bad mechanics to enjoy an otherwise decent product, I'd say start at #2.
Witcher 1 is... so bad it's kinda comical. I'd just pull up a story summary of Witcher 1 on youtube and call it a day. If you're a masochist, go ahead and give the actual game a whirl; but I'd recommend modding the snot out of it to at least make your character OP as fuck, allowing you to mostly skip the god-awful combat. But even then, the only selling point is the story, which again you can just pull up on YouTube.
That said, you can dive into 3 with zero knowledge of the previous two and be just fine. There are things that will go over your head, but nothing significant.
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