I'm immunocompromised and continuing to stay at home and single player games really help me get through it. I've played a lot of games (especially the past 2.5 years), so dig deep and give me a good recommendation that you don't think I've played.
I'm into most genres, but not super into loot games or ubisoft open world style games. Love smaller indie titles. I love some JRPGs (Trails, DQ11, Yakuza, FF), hate others (Persona). Yeah I just said I hate persona, get over it. BoTW , Death Stranding, and Elden Ring are some of my favorite "big" games recently. The Trails JRPG series is probably my favorite overall series.
I just finished up Return to Monkey Island and really liked it (was a big fan of LucasArts adventures in the 90s), but I can't play back to pack point and click games so maybe cool off on that.
Been playing a lot of Ooblets while working out lately, so probably not gonna be receptive to any Animal Crossing / Stardew style games rn. Btw check out Ooblets if you like those kinds of games.
Faster Than Light is a dirt-cheap roguelike which is addicting as fuck.
I love Klei as a developer they make some of my favorite single player games of varying genres.
Griftlands is a fun rogue-like card deck building game by then that I enjoyed and played a ton
I loved Griftlands in early access! I should go back and check it out now that its finished.
Griftlands is one of my favorite games of the past year or so. Got really sucked into it for about a month. Slay the Spire is similar and also very good.
If you like FPS games with survival elements, definitely check out the Metro Series. They're very pretty, and Exodus was great fun because it was just open-world enough to make exploration fun and rewarding, but it didn't feel overly padded like a lot of games with open worlds. You're on a train.
Also the newer Deus Ex titles are good.
Fashion Police Squad is the best boomer/pixel shooter (with modern elements) to come out in 2022.
As for non FPS fare I'd suggest Into the Breach (they just came out with an advanced edition that added a bunch of new mechanics/units), The Banner Saga and the newer XCOM releases should be available on console too.
All of these should be relatively console/controller friendly.
You're definitely hitting on a lot of games I really enjoy! I had a great time with the new Deus Ex titles (even despite some of their flaws). Into the Breach was also great, I should go back and play with the new stuff.
Fashion Police Squad is one I missed, but I see it got put out by No More Robots so I'm intrigued.
Definitely check it out! The movement's extremely smooth, it's got a Doom Eternal Style weapons system and the character models are pretty hilarious.
Also the Banner Saga would definitely be down your alley if you liked Into the Breach - 2 and 3 have survival modes and a custom battle creator so they're a bit more replayable, but if you have all 3 you can import your decisions from previous ones in story mode, which is pretty cool. And the art is really nice.
Rimworld has such a large mod library it's easy to keep the experience fresh.
Really any of Supergiants catalog is great, Pyre might be a bit of an acquired taste with the wizard basketball gameplay. Aside from Hades they're generally short and sweet though.
Dead Cells is a great metroidvania and is produced by a worker's co op.
Death's Door is a cute Zelda-like where you play as Dirt Owl.
Furi is very fun if you have the patience to learn boss battles and have the reflexes for it.
Neon White is a speed runner game that I probably wouldn't have tried if I hadn't heard Steve Blum voice acting the protagonist, the story is pretty mediocre but the game play is a lot of fun.
Divinity Original Sin 2: Solid AA CRPG with great characters and decent build variety. Drops off a little in the latter half but very worth your time nonetheless.
Prey (2017): Excellent immersive sim with a cool setting and interesting story
Going Under: Indie dungeon crawler set in a satire of startup culture. Cute art, banging soundtrack, funny jokes
West of Loathing: Hilarious and endearing RPG with a unique setting. Short and sweet. The DLC is also shory but worth it IMO.
Definitely seconding/thirding Griftlands. There's not a whole lot to do once you've done ascension on all three characters but it still took me over 100 hours to do that
I should have included Divinity Original Sin 2 in my post! That's one of my favorite games! I'm really excited for Baldur's Gate 3 to come out of Early Access.
I should go back to Prey. I love Arkane games, I love immersive sims, I love science fiction horror movies, but I'm a baby when it comes to getting scared in games. I was getting very scared in Prey haha.
West of Loathing is one I'll have to add to the list. I missed this one, but I love a short and sweet RPG.
I should have included Divinity Original Sin 2 in my post! That’s one of my favorite games! I’m really excited for Baldur’s Gate 3 to come out of Early Access.
Have you played the Pathfinder: Kingmaker or Wrath of the Righteous?'
I've played a bit of the EA Baldur's Gate 3 and to be honest I think I prefer playing the Pathfinder games. BG3 is swanky though and I, too, am excited for full release.
I haven't messed with Pathfinder. Is it real time with pause or turn based? A big reason I enjoyed Original Sin 2 over other CRPGs is I prefer turn based. Just a bit easier for me to follow. I was also a big fan of how much environmental effects you could cause on tiles in battle with spells and objects.
Setting the Pathfinder games to turn based adds a lot more nuance to combat, else it plays very similarly to DA:O
Is it real time with pause or turn based?
That's the neat part, it's both! There is a widget on your dashboard that can set combat to turn-based or real-time and you can change back-and-forth whenever you want.
I was also a big fan of how much environmental effects you could cause on tiles in battle with spells and objects.
While it's present it's not as much of a front-facing feature as it is in Divinity.
I'm currently playing Cultist simulator. It's a very specific kind of feel, so I'd recommend pirating to try first.
The dev's a creep, so pirating it anyways isn't too bad of a plan.
Alexis Kennedy has a pattern of "befriending" young women who are entering the industry and then crosses professional boundaries with them.
Here's a Twitter thread (CW: abuse)
If you like fast-paced first-person shooters, I highly recommend this brand-new game called "DOOM II" (1994)
no worries, I was a toddler when my brothers first introduced me to killing nazis in wolfenstein 3D. the education continued to killing demons in doom/doom II and whateverthefuckyoureshooting in quake
There's a new game out called Metal: Hellsinger that asks the daring question "What if Doom was a rhythm game?"
there are also fifty-two quadrillion mods for the various Doom games and source ports, including a map pack where you can kill multiple incarnations of Margaret "Gender-Neutral Bathroom" Thacher
I will never not suggest Pathologic 2. Despite its name, you absolutely do not need to (and in fact, very much shouldn't) play the original Pathologic first.
Other than that, my recommendations are going to be pretty basic and you've probably played a lot of them, but here goes anyway: Hollow Knight, Celeste, Hades, Outer Wilds, Fallout New Vegas, Disco Elysium.
Oh, there's also Inscryption which was good and creepy. That's a little more off the beaten path.
Or perhaps you'd like to get into Dwarf Fortress. I'd be much more willing to suggest this if the Steam release were already out, because it'll have much less of a learning curve at that point, but it's still really fun if you can get past the absolutely obtuse UI.
Oh, and if you never played Goadstool's game (Kor), you really should. Goadstool is a comrade who posts here and Kor is amazing. You probably knew this already though.
Hollow Knight, Celeste, Hades, Outer Wilds, Fallout New Vegas, Disco Elysium.
These are all very good suggestions! Maybe I should finally get around to Outer Wilds and Disco Elysium. Anyone here know if Disco's console port is an alright way to play?
And I bought Kor, forgot to install it, and forgot to play it. Damn my ADHD. I'll check out our comrade's game!
Outer Wilds :meow-bounce:
You owe it to yourself to go in as blind as possible. It's truly wonderful and really without comparison.
Maybe I should finally get around to Outer Wilds and Disco Elysium
I'm pretty sure admitting to not having played Disco Elysium on this website is a bannable offense
ummm sweatie this is ableist i have adhd okay all that text is very scary okay
(I'm just kidding I should absolutely play it)
yeah but the text is funny. bumbling your way into horrible situations by saying things you'd never say IRL in a million years is addiction-inducing.
I didn't play any of the Disco Elysium ports but I did play with a controller and a big TV and while not ideal, it was perfectly playable.
caves of qud. classic-style roguelike (tile based, turn based, not any of that newfangled realtime nonsense) with optional non-permadeath mode. exploring post-post-post apocalyptic "earth" as either a weird mutant or a weird cyborg. lovely writing & sound design make it feel more immersive than you'd think just looking at it. got a real neat faction reputation system like some RPGs that includes species like dogs & frogs, as well as the more standard social structures. early access but there's already 10+ years of devtime in the thing, more worthwhile content than a lot of big, finished games already and on track to be finished next year
battle brothers is a really good game that's basically medieval fantasy xcom (turn based, perma death of units, consistently missing attacks that should have a 95% chance of hitting, etc) but actually good. You play as a the leader of a mercenary band that's trying to become actually profitable, and as your mercenary band grows you gain access to new mechanics like raiding goblin strongholds and stuff. Apparently, in the late game there's massive war scenarios that can start like noble houses infighting, or loads of zombies and skeletons coming out of the ground to retake the world, etcetera but I haven't got that far in game yet.
there's also three dlcs that add a load of stuff to the base game but i dont know how good they are because i havent bought any yet
That sounds rad. I'm definitely going to check that out
If you need to waste a lot of time there's no better way to do it than to get into 4X games like Civilization.
Yeah, I forgot to mention that one! Tales have been hit or miss for me. I did enjoy Arise for the most part (little long, but still a lot of fun).
battle brothers is a fun indie turn based game about running a mercenary company
I was unfortunately not very good at Sekiro, but maybe I should give it another shot post Elden Ring.
It's probably the best fromsoft game imo at least for the first few playthroughs. Have you played Disco Elysium?
Yeah you should - next time it goes on sale definitely get it. It's great
Check out Prodeus its out on console as well. Its a Boomer shooter in the spirit of Doom 2016 and sits at currently 95% Overwhelmingly Positive reviews on Steam. Other than that I agree with the CIV recommendation I even heard good things about the Console port of CIV 6 (Cant talk about the Switch version) . SO if you want to stay on console those would be my recs.
