Favourite patient modern game?

A bit of a weird title, but basically what’s a game that’s more than a year old but still considered “modern” that you love? There’s no real strict definition for modern, I’d just like to see some discussion around great games that aren’t quite classics yet (but probably will be one day).

The nature of this community typically attracts discussion around decade-old games (which is what I mostly play too), but I’d like to see some newer (but not too new) games on this post.

Crowfiend ,

Satisfactory. It's been in early access for a few years now, 2019 I think? At the beginning of this year (2024) they announced the next update would be the 1.0 release. I've been playing it on/off for years, especially recently with all the strides they've made in development.

The game is like Factorio, but presented as an FPS. You get dropped onto a planet in a pod straight out of Halo: ODST by a space-future megacorp called Ficsit, with the goal of harvesting the planet's resources for Ficsit off-planet divisions.

I have almost 1500hrs in Satisfactory since I got it, there's no shortage of gameplay. Coffee Stain (devs) have been posting videos regularly, updating the community on new/discontinued features, revamped recipes and production rates, and even just being silly as much as being helpful, to the point where Coffee Stain is my go-to example of good devteam-community interaction.

Oh, and it also has a really good modding community, so if there's anything that's not in game, that you want in game, it's probably already been made by one or two modders.

lessthanluigi ,

There are mods? Dude, I have been playing this game for the past month, and I am almost done with the game. Thanks for the info man!

CarterH739 ,

And trains! Those are the best part. Both a joy, and a nightmare.

Protoknuckles ,

Deep Rock Galactic. I love the progression, the community and the humor.

MajorHavoc ,

Rock and stone, brother!

Protoknuckles ,

Rock and Stone! To the Bone!

Tikiporch ,

If you don't rock and stone, you ain't goin' home.

Rai ,

The Hex! By Daniel Mullins, of “Inscryption” game. The Hex is HORRIBLY overlooked because of its graphics, but they’re not… really… its graphics? It’s a marvel of creative game design and I love it so much. The graphics make sense almost immediately when playing. MORE PEOPLE PEAS PLAY THE HEX it is so good

JakJak98 ,

Hot take for me: I thought going into Inscryption was going to be a pure deck builder game with a goal of beating the first guy. Then I really enjoyed the deck building in the 2d zone, and wanted so much more of that, but after beating the game, it has next to no replay ability. It turns very ARG centric and to get the whole story required going outside of the game into the "real world" (internet) to learn the rest of the story. It never stuck with me, or striked me right. It felt like I was being led on and thrown into something I didn't really care about.

I know that they added an infinite mode, but I think that's just in the first zone, not all of them. .

In any case, the game was just ok, since it's not the Slay the Spire esque card builder I thought it'd be.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

I really liked it, precisely because it wasn't a Slay the Spire-esque game all the way through. I got tired of STS after beating it a few times, whereas Inscryption felt like the perfect length and held my attention throughout.

That said, I don't look for replayability. In fact I prefer games to not be replayable because that pushes devs to make that experience really good. It's really easy to cop out on "replayability" if you don't have good world building or story, and a lot of indie games do just that (i.e. it's easier to add more cards, classes, etc than a memorable story).

Everyone has different tastes. For me, Inscryption was right on the money. I got far fewer hours vs STS, but I came away far more satisfied.

Rai ,

Kids these days want endless

…CoNtEnT

It baffles me

Rai ,

Fair point

Counterpoint: y’aint gotta play forever, you can just play a game and dig it

Multicounterpoint: the hex, but if you want forever games and battle passes and dailies and loot boxes and quests and achievements and new things added all the time for dopamine it might not be your thing

Quick edit: I didn’t arg anything

JakJak98 ,

Oh I get it. Standalone, it's great. It's just not what I thought it was. I bought it for one reason, was surprised that it wasn't what I thought I'd be receiving as a consumer, reflecting, I'd definitely say it's a good game.

Battle passes/ dailies / loot boxes aren't really my thing either. I do love roguelikes and the idea of "runs" and it being a sandbox to play in to experiment with builds.

Noita, for example, is probably one of my favorite games of all time. (Also a game I recommend everyone to play and give a good college try.)

jukibom ,

I have just gotten into baldurs gate 3 and holy shit it has consumed my soul.

... Which is kinda fitting considering the themes of the game

BingBong ,

Kerbal Space Program

t_berium ,
@t_berium@lemmy.world avatar

I keep coming back to Insurgency: Sandstorm's PVE modes.
Man, what a underrated shooter!

I wish it had some better AI enemies, though.

duffman ,

Am I thinking of that game with the awesome scope mechanics? That game has PVE modes?

t_berium ,
@t_berium@lemmy.world avatar

Love the scope mechanics!
And yes!

HackerJoe ,

Recently got Mad Max from GOG. It's pretty great for Open World car combat and Arkham style brawling. It also runs great. Too bad it didn't get more attention.

HipsterTenZero ,
@HipsterTenZero@dormi.zone avatar

Cataclysm DDA, if it counts. There's usually a lot of time between stable releases, and by the time they come out, it usually feels like a completely different game.

JayEchoRay ,
@JayEchoRay@lemmy.world avatar

CDDA, takes awhile to get comfortable with the controls, but it does scratch a certain itch once one can get setup and start to test one's luck in search of the good stuff.

One has to make their own objectives for it though otherwise one can sort of just get to a point and not know what to do. But getting to a point where you can just walk into a city and be the most dangerous thing there does have a certain charm to it considering the journey getting there. It certainly rewards exploring though as one can find all sorts of craziness hidden away waiting to be found.

cybervseas ,

Disco Elysium

jstatepost ,
@jstatepost@mstdn.social avatar

@cybervseas @cod
Disco Asylum

TheHobbyist ,

I have this one sitting on my digital shelf, should probably play it!

JayEchoRay ,
@JayEchoRay@lemmy.world avatar

I know it is cliche to say but it took me the longest time to really knuckle down and play it, but boy once I did - I basically started up another playthrough right after to see what I missed and the shift in perspective when I played a different type of character was interesting to say the least.

So started as a skeptical intellectual who had to pull themselves from a sorry cop to a regular cop and approached things logically with a touch of eccentricity and pangs of regret and then compared to a wishy-washy communist with fascist leanings (which characters called the character out on) psychic superstar cop with an alias he truly believed was his name and I enjoyed and saw a completely different side of the game which was unexpected.

sugar_in_your_tea ,

I'm not sure if this counts because it's >10 years old, but also still developed:

Europa Universis IV

It's like this game was built exactly for what I like most in games.

But for something more in the spirit of your question, I'll go with Manifold Garden. I love M. C. Escher, and this feels like a puzzle game in one of his worlds.

goatbeard ,

I wouldn't expect to see EU4 here, but I must vouch for it—once it clicks it is engaging, thrilling, and addictive. I just wish there was a better way to get all the dlc. And a better UI lol

sugar_in_your_tea ,

For DLC, I just bought 1-2 at a time and treated it like a new game each time. I now have most of them, and I've always waited at least a year before buying a DLC to get it for 50% off.

I think the UI is fine, though it seems EUV is coming out soon, so the UI will likely be completely reworked. If you're thinking about jumping in, I recommend waiting for EUV since EUIV will likely be steeply discounted (just like CK2 was when CK3 was released).

getoffthedrugsdude ,

Personally, my favorite games in the last few years were the talos principle (1 and 2), and Grow: song of the evertree. They aren't really popular but I've replayed them a lot. Also have over 400 hours in core keeper.

Donjuanme ,

I've been looking to get core keeper for quite some time...

getoffthedrugsdude ,

It's an adorable game, and has multiplayer!

SorteKanin ,
@SorteKanin@feddit.dk avatar

Talos Principle is a master piece. Kinda hoping they make a third one, but would be interested to see what Croteam does after even if it's not Talos 3.

tigeruppercut ,
@tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip avatar

Every 2-3 years I'll fire up Terraria again

Donjuanme ,

Me too, thinking I'll finally have some enlightenment as to how to kill the first night or twos zombies without getting killed and rage quitting.

I've even watched "beginner tutorials" on that game game, and conveniently they ended the first video just after nightfall of the first night, and started the second video during the second day, but that's not how it friggin works, you need to murder the enemies lest they murder you, and in 5 different starts of the game, across 3 different devices, I've yet to kill the first or second nights horde without them breaking down my doors and wrecking my shit.

That game is one of my biggest regrets, I bought the 4 pack when it first came out thinking my friends and I would all have a great time, it makes me feel like I'm old and disconnected that I can't enjoy that stupid (supposedly fantastic) game.

tigeruppercut ,
@tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip avatar

If you dig a 2x3 pit immediately adjacent to your door outside the zombies can't break in

Donjuanme ,

............

Thank you for that! Maybe it's that time of the decade again.

Why couldn't any of the tips for noobs have given that advice? (I watched at least half a dozen, many years ago though)

tigeruppercut ,
@tigeruppercut@lemmy.zip avatar

Also if you have an entrance on the ground and build the rest of the base above it you should be set for the early game stuff. (see the first picture on the bases wiki page)

I hope it works for you. I think I've played it more than any other game. The wiki is a fantastic resource if you're feeling stuck.

https://terraria.wiki.gg/wiki/Terraria_Wiki

caut_R ,

Trine 5 was probably the best Trine to date. It‘s almost a year old, but already discounted to 15ish bucks in sales. Took a friend and I 20 hours to platinum and we had so much fun cheesing the puzzles and doing stupid stuff. I wish there just was no combat in the game tbh, it‘s just there to gatekeep you from having fun with the puzzles lol. I also wish there had been more achievements related to playing a level in a specific way that you gotta figure out. There‘s one for crossing all rivers in a specific map without touching water, and one where you gotta beat any map without destroying boxes. These two were a lotta fun to do.

I was also obsessed with HITMAN (Jan 2022 according to Steam, was a year exclusive to EGS IIRC). Now it‘s just some crappy liveservice-esque thing, but when they actually did new maps and stuff I had tons of fun walking around the crazy detailed levels and looking for small npc skits the devs put in there, doing looney toons banana peel assassinations etc. Agent 47 being that unfeeling killing robot trying to destroy the world controlling illuminati makes all the slapstick so much funnier.

SmoothOperator ,

Calling HITMAN a crappy live service thing is hardly fair. True, the always online part feels really unnecessary, but beyond that it is a stellar single player game with the best Hitman gameplay of the last two decades, a large selection of excellent maps with variants and extra missions, as well as a really impressive rogue-like mode added later for free.

The elusive targets and seasonal content can be completely ignored, and the game would still be a major milestone in modern singleplayer games.

caut_R , (edited )

I’m not saying it’s a bad game, it’s easily in the top 10 favorite games of mine (I meant to refer to liveservice as a concept as crappy, not the game). I was just trying to say it was a better franchise when they actually made new games with new maps. Now they‘re done with HITMAN as far as I understand so no HITMAN 4 for the foreseeable future. They even went ahead and rebranded HITMAN 3 to HITMAN WORLD OF ASSASSINATION to further emphasize that this is gonna be an everturning wheel now in their minds. I‘d much prefer a HITMAN 4 with fresh maps, fresh ideas, and a fresh spy thriller story. This HITMAN‘s still the best game in the series IMO and getting the map packs gives new players insane amounts of content. However, HITMAN 4 should be in the making by now, not this liveservice stuff.

IIRC they are making a James Bond game, so here‘s hoping that that‘ll give me more of this kinda gameplay.

Anyone who hasn‘t experienced HITMAN, however, should definitely get the game with the map packs on top and play the whole thing, they‘re in for a treat.

Donjuanme ,

Dude they made another trine??? Damn I've gotta get that into my library. Some of the most fun co-op I've ever done was trine, trine 2 and trine 3. Hopefully 5 took a lot of "don't do that"'s from trine 4.

caut_R ,

Not sure what you disliked about 4, but we had tons of fun with 5. The combat‘s meh but IMO it‘s always been.

kralk ,

That's so funny, I was thinking "they made more than two??"

Donjuanme ,

Hades is absolutely the culmination of so much experience in modern rogue-lite games and game development.

It's sequel comes out soon and I'm not going to be patient about jumping head first into it.

pacmondo ,

Available in early access now with plenty of content already, just no ending

fsxylo ,

I hated roguelikes until I played Hades, decided to give roguelikes a try again. Realized It's just Hades that I like.

Donjuanme ,

Definitely a legit take, there are very few people I wouldn't recommend Hades to, if only for enough playthroughs to get to the "end" of the story. Though there is so much past that

Cobrachicken ,

Rimworld.

Donjuanme ,

Definitely a classic.

Longpork3 ,

I just wish it was multithreaded so that i could maintain a colony for more than a week without slowing to potato speeds.

My n00b theory on it, with the proviso that I am not a developer and only have a basic understanding of multithreading, is that you would break up the map into regions, and have each regions pawns and environment handled independently by separate threads/cores while one master thread handled interactions between regions and kept them all in sync.

Regions could dynamically scale depending on how computationally intensive they are, such that when the master/watchdog thread has to wait for one thread significantly longer than any of it's adjacent region threads, it remaps the boundary iteratively until it acheives minimal wait-time and the load is evenly balanced.

As it stands, I've got one core maxed out and the game running slower than realtime while my 15 other cores sit at idle like suckers.

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