Recommend me a game, again

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Recommend me a game, again

Hwurmp: May 20, 2005

Afriscipio posted:

Looking for recommendatioms for switch or pc games I can play in short bursts with a toddler on the lap. Mario Odyssey and Yooka Laylee were hits. Not violent, but it should be bright and engaging. The game should also be controller friendly.

PHOGS!

# ? Jul 7, 2021 00:30

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# ? May 26, 2024 01:59

External Organs: Mar 3, 2006; One time i prank called a bear buildin workshop and said I wanted my mamaws ashes put in a teddy from where she loved them things so well... The woman on the phone did not skip a beat. She just said, "Brang her on down here. We've did it before."

Afriscipio posted:

Looking for recommendatioms for switch or pc games I can play in short bursts with a toddler on the lap. Mario Odyssey and Yooka Laylee were hits. Not violent, but it should be bright and engaging. The game should also be controller friendly.

Yokus Island Adventure!!!

# ? Jul 7, 2021 01:00

Tagra: Apr 7, 2006; If you gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back into you.

Responding to my own question from a couple weeks ago, I picked up "Unknightly" in the Steam sale and it feels like playing OG Thief in VR with sneaking up and pickpocking purses off guards and snatching coins off tables and such. Granted, I've only played one level, and I had to take a break because it doesn't have teleport movement (which kinda makes sense... but means I get motion sickness headaches) and it was so dark (again, kinda makes sense) even at the highest brightness setting that I was getting eyestrain trying to find boxes in the shadows and poo poo like that... BUT the gameplay was excellent and the controls were better than Thief Simulator VR (at least, so far).

Does sound like it's a bit short (after their last major content update last year it sounds like it has 6 levels) but it was only like 10 bucks on sale and I'll definitely get that amount of play out of it.

# ? Jul 9, 2021 00:54

deep dish peat moss: Jul 27, 2006

I'm writing a thing about the presence of completely unknowable outcomes in games - 'gambling' sort of, but as a mechanic in actual games and not like, MTX Gacha mobile game stuff.
It was inspired by a game I was playing (Neon Abyss) handling this (imo) very poorly by making you constantly commit your limited resources (health/keys/bombs/coins) to crack open chests/rooms that often don't even return value equal to what you spent to open them, or return no value at all. Spend a heart to open a bloodthirsty chest and... it drops half a heart. Take 1/2 heart unavoidable damage from walking through a laser grid into a treasure room, and the treasure room has nothing but a single worthless coin in it. That kind of stuff.

I don't mean things like having a 70% hit chance in XCOM - I mean truly unknowable outcomes where [at least without outside/wiki knowledge] you're committing valuable limited resources to something with no clue what you'll get in return. Neon Abyss in general feels like a slot machine where you're just hoping to hit on all lines so you can scale the power curve on a run.

I can think of a handful of games where I think it was handled poorly, and a handful where it has its place or is used sparingly enough that it's not a big deal, but can anyone recommend me games where this kind of 'gambling' is a core part of the gameplay loop, but where it's well implemented and actually enhances the game by its inclusion?

Luck be a Landlord is the only one that comes straight to mind because it's a whole game designed around this concept.

edit: vvv Huh, I actually own and have played Chaos Reborn but it was a long time ago and I didn't remember this side of it. I'll have to check it out again, thanks!

deep dish peat moss fucked around with this message at 20:29 on Jul 14, 2021

# ? Jul 14, 2021 20:15

StrixNebulosa: Feb 14, 2012; You cheated not only the game, but yourself.
But most of all, you cheated BABA

deep dish peat moss posted:

I'm writing a thing about the presence of completely unknowable outcomes in games - 'gambling' sort of, but as a mechanic in actual games and not like, MTX Gacha mobile game stuff.
It was inspired by a game I was playing (Neon Abyss) handling this (imo) very poorly by making you constantly commit your limited resources (health/keys/bombs/coins) to crack open chests/rooms that often don't even return value equal to what you spent to open them, or return no value at all. Spend a heart to open a bloodthirsty chest and... it drops half a heart. Take 1/2 heart unavoidable damage from walking through a laser grid into a treasure room, and the treasure room has nothing but a single worthless coin in it. That kind of stuff.

I don't mean things like having a 70% hit chance in XCOM - I mean truly unknowable outcomes where [at least without outside/wiki knowledge] you're committing valuable limited resources to something with no clue what you'll get in return. Neon Abyss in general feels like a slot machine where you're just hoping to hit on all lines so you can scale the power curve on a run.

I can think of a handful of games where I think it was handled poorly, and a handful where it has its place or is used sparingly enough that it's not a big deal, but can anyone recommend me games where this kind of 'gambling' is a core part of the gameplay loop, but where it's well implemented and actually enhances the game by its inclusion?

Luck be a Landlord is the only one that comes straight to mind because it's a whole game designed around this concept.

Chaos Reborn is ENTIRELY based around gambling, as the entire game is balanced around RNG.

# ? Jul 14, 2021 20:24

Play: Apr 25, 2006; Strong stroll for a mangy stray

It's actually pretty interesting that in X-COM, what it says is a 70% chance shot is not actually a 70% chance shot and is in fact a much more involved formula which attempts to spare players the frustration of missing multiple times in a row and is actually a higher chance than advertised.

# ? Jul 14, 2021 20:35

Ben Nerevarine: Apr 14, 2006

deep dish peat moss posted:

I'm writing a thing about the presence of completely unknowable outcomes in games - 'gambling' sort of, but as a mechanic in actual games and not like, MTX Gacha mobile game stuff.
It was inspired by a game I was playing (Neon Abyss) handling this (imo) very poorly by making you constantly commit your limited resources (health/keys/bombs/coins) to crack open chests/rooms that often don't even return value equal to what you spent to open them, or return no value at all. Spend a heart to open a bloodthirsty chest and... it drops half a heart. Take 1/2 heart unavoidable damage from walking through a laser grid into a treasure room, and the treasure room has nothing but a single worthless coin in it. That kind of stuff.

I don't mean things like having a 70% hit chance in XCOM - I mean truly unknowable outcomes where [at least without outside/wiki knowledge] you're committing valuable limited resources to something with no clue what you'll get in return. Neon Abyss in general feels like a slot machine where you're just hoping to hit on all lines so you can scale the power curve on a run.

I can think of a handful of games where I think it was handled poorly, and a handful where it has its place or is used sparingly enough that it's not a big deal, but can anyone recommend me games where this kind of 'gambling' is a core part of the gameplay loop, but where it's well implemented and actually enhances the game by its inclusion?

Luck be a Landlord is the only one that comes straight to mind because it's a whole game designed around this concept.

I�m not sure if this is exactly what you�re looking for, but many roguelikes have randomized potions every game. They�re usually identified first just by their color (i.e. all red potions have the same effect but you don�t know what that effect is yet), and the only ways to identify them are to use an identify scroll (relatively rare and usually better spent on identifying equipment) or by using them, either by drinking them yourself or throwing at enemies. You run the risk of quaffing a harmful potion, and likewise you risk wasting a beneficial potion by throwing them at enemies.

Brogue comes to mind as one example but it�s pretty staple for traditional roguelikes

# ? Jul 14, 2021 20:35

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

I feel like basically any roguelike where you can spend keys or whatever to open a chest which could possibly contain a great new weapon or possibly contain a single turd, or where you can only identify unknown potions/scrolls by using them, fits roughly that bill?

# ? Jul 14, 2021 20:38

Pharnakes: Aug 14, 2009

deep dish peat moss posted:

I'm writing a thing about the presence of completely unknowable outcomes in games - 'gambling' sort of, but as a mechanic in actual games and not like, MTX Gacha mobile game stuff.
It was inspired by a game I was playing (Neon Abyss) handling this (imo) very poorly by making you constantly commit your limited resources (health/keys/bombs/coins) to crack open chests/rooms that often don't even return value equal to what you spent to open them, or return no value at all. Spend a heart to open a bloodthirsty chest and... it drops half a heart. Take 1/2 heart unavoidable damage from walking through a laser grid into a treasure room, and the treasure room has nothing but a single worthless coin in it. That kind of stuff.

I don't mean things like having a 70% hit chance in XCOM - I mean truly unknowable outcomes where [at least without outside/wiki knowledge] you're committing valuable limited resources to something with no clue what you'll get in return. Neon Abyss in general feels like a slot machine where you're just hoping to hit on all lines so you can scale the power curve on a run.

I can think of a handful of games where I think it was handled poorly, and a handful where it has its place or is used sparingly enough that it's not a big deal, but can anyone recommend me games where this kind of 'gambling' is a core part of the gameplay loop, but where it's well implemented and actually enhances the game by its inclusion?

Luck be a Landlord is the only one that comes straight to mind because it's a whole game designed around this concept.

edit: vvv Huh, I actually own and have played Chaos Reborn but it was a long time ago and I didn't remember this side of it. I'll have to check it out again, thanks!

I'm not sure if this is what you mean at all, but any kind of turnbased multiplayer wego game is an effective gamble because everytime you press end turn you are throwing into the void and hoping you made the right counters to your opponents guesses.

# ? Jul 14, 2021 20:56

deep dish peat moss: Jul 27, 2006

Lunchmeat Larry posted:

I feel like basically any roguelike where you can spend keys or whatever to open a chest which could possibly contain a great new weapon or possibly contain a single turd, or where you can only identify unknown potions/scrolls by using them, fits roughly that bill?

Yeah, that's definitely along the right lines, but I'm mostly looking for games where this is the core gameplay loop. In your average Roguelike that chest is an optional bonus that might contain treasure but you could also get that radical battleaxe by defeating an enemy or finding it lying on the ground. In Neon Abyss in particular, it's essentially the only way to earn loot.

I'm looking for a game that makes that the core gameplay loop and makes it actually fun, involved and interesting - because I don't want to write a one-sided article about how this is a bad mechanic just because I'm frustrated by a few implementations of it, I'd like to also take a look at a game that goes whole hog and does it well.
(And I'm kind of wondering if it even can be "done well" when going whole hog, like, is this just something that devs should avoid because it's never fun?)

# ? Jul 14, 2021 21:07

v1ld: Apr 16, 2012

deep dish peat moss posted:

I can think of a handful of games where I think it was handled poorly, and a handful where it has its place or is used sparingly enough that it's not a big deal, but can anyone recommend me games where this kind of 'gambling' is a core part of the gameplay loop, but where it's well implemented and actually enhances the game by its inclusion?

I don't know if this fits your definition of gambling resource1 to get resource2, but in Monster Hunter you put in time (resource1) to get the parts you need to build gear (resource2). On the surface, it's a pretty straight roll. For e.g., here's a Rathalos Ruby in MH World: https://mhworld.kiranico.com/items/rM2Al/rathalos-ruby

But MH gives you the player many ways of improving your chances at that low 2-3% drop item. You can use investigations, break body parts that have higher drop chances, etc. So that Rathalos Ruby can be a 33% drop if you stack all those possibilites: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&threadid=3842457&pagenumber=993&perpage=40#post488998794

Not quite gambling so much as a game giving you a chance of improving drop rates through smart gameplay.

# ? Jul 14, 2021 21:47

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

deep dish peat moss posted:

Yeah, that's definitely along the right lines, but I'm mostly looking for games where this is the core gameplay loop. In your average Roguelike that chest is an optional bonus that might contain treasure but you could also get that radical battleaxe by defeating an enemy or finding it lying on the ground. In Neon Abyss in particular, it's essentially the only way to earn loot.

I'm looking for a game that makes that the core gameplay loop and makes it actually fun, involved and interesting - because I don't want to write a one-sided article about how this is a bad mechanic just because I'm frustrated by a few implementations of it, I'd like to also take a look at a game that goes whole hog and does it well.
(And I'm kind of wondering if it even can be "done well" when going whole hog, like, is this just something that devs should avoid because it's never fun?)

Got you. Having played a lot of games that try to hit a sweet balance along this line, I'm inclined to think that no, it can't be done well - past a certain point of risk/reward vs required to progress I feel like it becomes Talisman/Risk arbitrariness because it loses the element of meaningful choice. Like, "do I gamble on this chest/potion or play it safe" is an interesting decision, wind up a character and watch it go isn't.

But it's an intriguing question and I'll have a good think about games that have played with it successfully - Dicey Dungeons might be worth a look as it's a well received game which relies on RNG.

# ? Jul 14, 2021 21:56

Play: Apr 25, 2006; Strong stroll for a mangy stray

Lunchmeat Larry posted:

Got you. Having played a lot of games that try to hit a sweet balance along this line, I'm inclined to think that no, it can't be done well - past a certain point of risk/reward vs required to progress I feel like it becomes Talisman/Risk arbitrariness because it loses the element of meaningful choice. Like, "do I gamble on this chest/potion or play it safe" is an interesting decision, wind up a character and watch it go isn't.

But it's an intriguing question and I'll have a good think about games that have played with it successfully - Dicey Dungeons might be worth a look as it's a well received game which relies on RNG.

Actually Talisman is a good example, RNG completely controls your movement which is crucial to the design of the game since it would be piss easy if you could just choose which square you want to go to.

# ? Jul 14, 2021 22:35

nachos: Jun 27, 2004; Wario Chalmers! WAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

deep dish peat moss posted:

I'm writing a thing about the presence of completely unknowable outcomes in games - 'gambling' sort of, but as a mechanic in actual games and not like, MTX Gacha mobile game stuff.
It was inspired by a game I was playing (Neon Abyss) handling this (imo) very poorly by making you constantly commit your limited resources (health/keys/bombs/coins) to crack open chests/rooms that often don't even return value equal to what you spent to open them, or return no value at all. Spend a heart to open a bloodthirsty chest and... it drops half a heart. Take 1/2 heart unavoidable damage from walking through a laser grid into a treasure room, and the treasure room has nothing but a single worthless coin in it. That kind of stuff.

I don't mean things like having a 70% hit chance in XCOM - I mean truly unknowable outcomes where [at least without outside/wiki knowledge] you're committing valuable limited resources to something with no clue what you'll get in return. Neon Abyss in general feels like a slot machine where you're just hoping to hit on all lines so you can scale the power curve on a run.

I can think of a handful of games where I think it was handled poorly, and a handful where it has its place or is used sparingly enough that it's not a big deal, but can anyone recommend me games where this kind of 'gambling' is a core part of the gameplay loop, but where it's well implemented and actually enhances the game by its inclusion?

Luck be a Landlord is the only one that comes straight to mind because it's a whole game designed around this concept.

edit: vvv Huh, I actually own and have played Chaos Reborn but it was a long time ago and I didn't remember this side of it. I'll have to check it out again, thanks!

In Diablo 2 I spent more time doing mephisto runs than anything else over hundreds of hours

e: I think I misread your post, disregard

# ? Jul 15, 2021 00:11

LLSix: Jan 20, 2010; The real power behind countless overlords

Play posted:

It's actually pretty interesting that in X-COM, what it says is a 70% chance shot is not actually a 70% chance shot and is in fact a much more involved formula which attempts to spare players the frustration of missing multiple times in a row and is actually a higher chance than advertised.

Only on lower difficulty levels. As you increase the difficulty setting, the game cheats less in your favor, and at some point stops entirely.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 01:06

Tuxedo Catfish: Mar 17, 2007; You've got guts! Come to my village, I'll buy you lunch.

I'm looking for games about the deep sea, preferably along simulation / survival lines, but other genres and left field suggestions are fine.

Subnautica is the gold standard. Aquaria nails the tone but the gameplay was pretty awful. Maneater isn't what I'm looking for but the idea of playing as the sea life is pretty appealing; I'm aware of Ecco the Dolphin but I'm hoping for something a bit more recent.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 13:01

kirbysuperstar: Nov 11, 2012; Let the fools who stand before us be destroyed by the power you and I possess.

Tuxedo Catfish posted:

I'm looking for games about the deep sea, preferably along simulation / survival lines, but other genres and left field suggestions are fine.

Subnautica is the gold standard. Aquaria nails the tone but the gameplay was pretty awful. Maneater isn't what I'm looking for but the idea of playing as the sea life is pretty appealing; I'm aware of Ecco the Dolphin but I'm hoping for something a bit more recent.

I guess they're a bit old now but did you ever play Everblue or Endless Ocean?

# ? Jul 15, 2021 13:09

Tuxedo Catfish: Mar 17, 2007; You've got guts! Come to my village, I'll buy you lunch.

kirbysuperstar posted:

I guess they're a bit old now but did you ever play Everblue or Endless Ocean?

Neither, but I'm PC-only, unfortunately, and don't really want to fuss with PS2 or Wii emulation at the moment.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 13:10

Danger - Octopus!: Apr 20, 2008; Nap Ghost

Tuxedo Catfish posted:

I'm looking for games about the deep sea, preferably along simulation / survival lines, but other genres and left field suggestions are fine.

Subnautica is the gold standard. Aquaria nails the tone but the gameplay was pretty awful. Maneater isn't what I'm looking for but the idea of playing as the sea life is pretty appealing; I'm aware of Ecco the Dolphin but I'm hoping for something a bit more recent.

It's not the same kind of gameplay as those but have you looked at In Other Waters?

# ? Jul 15, 2021 13:29

Sway Grunt: May 15, 2004; Tenochtitlan, looking east.

SOMA takes place in a deep sea underwater facility and has sections where you're walking out on the ocean floor.

In Other Waters, maybe? I haven't played it myself yet but heard nothing but good things.

Beatbuddy: Tale of the Guardians is a level-based 2D adventure/exploration thing that takes place in underwater environments where everything moves to the beat of the music.

The Oil Blue is a time management / spinning plates game from the developer that later made Cook, Serve, Delicious!! where you use various types of machinery to extract oil from the ocean and sell it on the market. Kind of a moody game.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 13:32

Tuxedo Catfish: Mar 17, 2007; You've got guts! Come to my village, I'll buy you lunch.

Danger - Octopus! posted:

It's not the same kind of gameplay as those but have you looked at In Other Waters?

That looks perfect, in fact. Thanks!

# ? Jul 15, 2021 13:32

SpaceGoatFarts: Jan 5, 2010; sic transit gloria mundi; Nap Ghost

In Other Waters is indeed great if a bit short.

I don't see Abzu or Beyond Blue mentionned yet so I'm adding them to the list.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 13:36

Fruits of the sea: Dec 1, 2010

Yeah In Other Waters is really neat. IMO the game is a good length, ended right when the gameplay was starting to get stale.

I haven�t tried it yet, but Barotrauma is going for an underwater FTL vibe.

Sunless Sea (with the underwater expansion Zubmariner) is a very different game but also a lot of fun. Lots of exploration above and below water, survival mechanics and Lovecraftian horror. Check out the beforeiplay page before playing though, the gameplay is kinda unintuitive compared to its space sequel.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 13:49

Tuxedo Catfish: Mar 17, 2007; You've got guts! Come to my village, I'll buy you lunch.

Thanks for all of these. SOMA in particular was also a great suggestion, for somewhat unexpected reasons -- I already own it but had put off playing it because I had it confused with some other, much jankier and less engaging horror game. (Possibly KHOLAT?)

# ? Jul 15, 2021 14:04

PhoenixFlaccus: Jul 15, 2011; KFC Famous Bowl

I wrote this list of things I like about games and numbered them by importance after the fact when I was trying to think of ideas for a game. After writing it I realized that Hades really is good as hell and I should probably play more Into the Breach, but it just hasn�t grabbed me yet. Also wrote it before playing Stellaris, which checks a lot of these boxes. Any recommendations based on this wall of text? StS=Slay the Spire, BSCotM=Blood Stained Curse of the Moon

1 Treadmills. Gather resources to make a thing, to get a new resource to make a new thing. An in-game daily loop of activities. : Astroneer, XCOM, Persona, NMS, Civ, Minecraft, Valheim, Stardew,

2 Earnestness. Could tell creators were passionate and had fun with what they were making: Yakuza, Hades, MGS, Persona, Celeste.

3 Style. Blend of music and visuals to present a specific atmosphere. Ties in with story (if present). Should tie in with gameplay in an interesting way. Menus should be intuitive and descriptive. : Hades, Yakuza, Fury, Risk of Rain, Persona, MGS, Mario, Lumines, Crypt

4 Skills. Usually tied with XP, leveling up. Can be connected to loot as well. Skills that synergize with loot or other skills are fun. Acquiring a skill should make you want to play more to try it out. XCOM does this the best. Every mission someone levels up and you want to try to see how they fit in your toolset. Enhance gameplay feel. Be very clear what things do. : XCOM, Hades, Yakuza (caveats), Destiny
2, Risk of Rain, Persona (Persona skills, ties in with strategy layer), Overwatch (team synergy), BSCotM

5 Strategy. Phases of relative inaction where plans are made, items and skills are managed. Good menu music needed here: Hades, MGSV, XCOM, Persona, StS, Factorio, Civ

6 Progression. Tied with skills, loot and treadmill. Numbers get bigger as game gets harder. Player skill progression should be taken into account. Certain enemies and bosses should teach players to pay attention to mechanics. Could be tied to exploration and unlocking new areas (Metroidvania): XCOM, Hades, Souls, BSCotM, Ori, Yakuza 0, Yakuza 7, FFXIII, HZD, Persona

7 Loot. Ties in with other gameplay elements well. Good loot box opening animation. High tier loot must be useful and should sometimes enhance other optional skills or loot. Good reward for something hard. Cosmetics if you nasty. Be very clear what things do. : Hades, XCOM, Destiny 2, Risk of Rain, StS, Persona

8 Exploration and discovery. Things to find that are interesting and/or rewarding. Can tie in with loot and style/music (overall theme). : BotW, Yakuza, Hades, Minecraft, Valheim

9 Good movement. Double jump, dash, float, air dash, teleport, high jump, long jump, wall jump, turn on a dime : Celeste, Mario, Control, Sekiro, Spiderman, BotW

11 A hard mode/post game that rewards familiarization with and exploitation of systems. Should tie in well with ending and loot. : God of War, Sekiro, Hades, XCOM, Factorio, Mario, Yakuza, StS, BotW, BSCotM

12 An ending. Satisfying conclusion. Easier boss to finish after hardest boss maybe. Doesn�t have to be story. : StS, God of War, BotW, MGS2 (unsatisfyingly), MGS3, SSBM (credits), Nier Automata, Yakuza 0

13 Scoreboards/Results Screen/Ranking : Race the Sun, StS, XCOM, Racing games, Yakuza, Rocket League (good stats), Mario Kart

14 Coop. Ideally other players can pop in and out and difficulty scales on the fly. It should be easy to get together. Probably has a loot element. : Portal, Destiny 2, Risk of Rain, Borderlands, Diablo

15 Competition. Good skill matching. It should be easy to join friends and matchmake. : Rocket League, Apex Legends, Mahjong Soul, Mario Kart, Tetris 99, NFSHP, CoD, Overwatch

E: ordered. 10 does not exist

PhoenixFlaccus fucked around with this message at 14:31 on Jul 15, 2021

# ? Jul 15, 2021 14:14

Sandwich Anarchist: Sep 12, 2008

Maybe if you put them in order it would be easier to read? That's difficult to parse

# ? Jul 15, 2021 14:18

Lunchmeat Larry: Nov 3, 2012

Tuxedo Catfish posted:

Thanks for all of these. SOMA in particular was also a great suggestion, for somewhat unexpected reasons -- I already own it but had put off playing it because I had it confused with some other, much jankier and less engaging horror game. (Possibly KHOLAT?)

maybe STASIS? All caps name, sci-fi horror kind of theme

# ? Jul 15, 2021 14:19

Hwurmp: May 20, 2005

PhoenixFlaccus posted:

I wrote this list of things I like about games and numbered them by importance after the fact when I was trying to think of ideas for a game. After writing it I realized that Hades really is good as hell and I should probably play more Into the Breach, but it just hasn�t grabbed me yet. Also wrote it before playing Stellaris, which checks a lot of these boxes. Any recommendations based on this wall of text? StS=Slay the Spire, BSCotM=Blood Stained Curse of the Moon

1 Treadmills. Gather resources to make a thing, to get a new resource to make a new thing. An in-game daily loop of activities. : Astroneer, XCOM, Persona, NMS, Civ, Minecraft, Valheim, Stardew,

2 Earnestness. Could tell creators were passionate and had fun with what they were making: Yakuza, Hades, MGS, Persona, Celeste.

3 Style. Blend of music and visuals to present a specific atmosphere. Ties in with story (if present). Should tie in with gameplay in an interesting way. Menus should be intuitive and descriptive. : Hades, Yakuza, Fury, Risk of Rain, Persona, MGS, Mario, Lumines, Crypt

4 Skills. Usually tied with XP, leveling up. Can be connected to loot as well. Skills that synergize with loot or other skills are fun. Acquiring a skill should make you want to play more to try it out. XCOM does this the best. Every mission someone levels up and you want to try to see how they fit in your toolset. Enhance gameplay feel. Be very clear what things do. : XCOM, Hades, Yakuza (caveats), Destiny
2, Risk of Rain, Persona (Persona skills, ties in with strategy layer), Overwatch (team synergy), BSCotM

5 Strategy. Phases of relative inaction where plans are made, items and skills are managed. Good menu music needed here: Hades, MGSV, XCOM, Persona, StS, Factorio, Civ

6 Progression. Tied with skills, loot and treadmill. Numbers get bigger as game gets harder. Player skill progression should be taken into account. Certain enemies and bosses should teach players to pay attention to mechanics. Could be tied to exploration and unlocking new areas (Metroidvania): XCOM, Hades, Souls, BSCotM, Ori, Yakuza 0, Yakuza 7, FFXIII, HZD, Persona

7 Loot. Ties in with other gameplay elements well. Good loot box opening animation. High tier loot must be useful and should sometimes enhance other optional skills or loot. Good reward for something hard. Cosmetics if you nasty. Be very clear what things do. : Hades, XCOM, Destiny 2, Risk of Rain, StS, Persona

8 Exploration and discovery. Things to find that are interesting and/or rewarding. Can tie in with loot and style/music (overall theme). : BotW, Yakuza, Hades, Minecraft, Valheim

9 Good movement. Double jump, dash, float, air dash, teleport, high jump, long jump, wall jump, turn on a dime : Celeste, Mario, Control, Sekiro, Spiderman, BotW

11 A hard mode/post game that rewards familiarization with and exploitation of systems. Should tie in well with ending and loot. : God of War, Sekiro, Hades, XCOM, Factorio, Mario, Yakuza, StS, BotW, BSCotM

12 An ending. Satisfying conclusion. Easier boss to finish after hardest boss maybe. Doesn�t have to be story. : StS, God of War, BotW, MGS2 (unsatisfyingly), MGS3, SSBM (credits), Nier Automata, Yakuza 0

13 Scoreboards/Results Screen/Ranking : Race the Sun, StS, XCOM, Racing games, Yakuza, Rocket League (good stats), Mario Kart

14 Coop. Ideally other players can pop in and out and difficulty scales on the fly. It should be easy to get together. Probably has a loot element. : Portal, Destiny 2, Risk of Rain, Borderlands, Diablo

15 Competition. Good skill matching. It should be easy to join friends and matchmake. : Rocket League, Apex Legends, Mahjong Soul, Mario Kart, Tetris 99, NFSHP, CoD, Overwatch

E: ordered. 10 does not exist

play Deep Rock Galactic and/or Monster Hunter

# ? Jul 15, 2021 14:43

MikeRabsitch: Aug 23, 2004; Show us what you got, what you got

PhoenixFlaccus posted:

I wrote this list of things I like about games and numbered them by importance

I'm liking My Time at Portia and it hits a number of those.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 14:55

PhoenixFlaccus: Jul 15, 2011; KFC Famous Bowl

Ordered the list.

Hwurmp posted:

play Deep Rock Galactic and/or Monster Hunter

MHW didn�t resonate with me for some reason. It was hard to figure out at first then it was probably too easy because I was using the high damage weapons designed to get you to the DLC. DRG is good and I should play more but my friends aren�t really into it.

Knightmare posted:

I'm liking My Time at Portia and it hits a number of those.

Will check it out. Sounds a lot like Stardew? Loved Stardew. It�s also on game pass.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 15:08

Afriscipio: Jun 3, 2013

Lunchmeat Larry posted:

maybe STASIS? All caps name, sci-fi horror kind of theme

It fits the bill. Stasis felt like it was written by an edgy high-school student. The story beats always go for shock value, rather than horror. The theme is interesting, but the writing can't carry it.

PhoenixFlaccus posted:

I wrote this list of things I like about games and numbered them by importance after the fact when I was trying to think of ideas for a game. After writing it I realized that Hades really is good as hell and I should probably play more Into the Breach, but it just hasn�t grabbed me yet. Also wrote it before playing Stellaris, which checks a lot of these boxes. Any recommendations based on this wall of text?

Have you played Shovel Knight?

Afriscipio fucked around with this message at 15:38 on Jul 15, 2021

# ? Jul 15, 2021 15:36

tildes: Nov 16, 2018

deep dish peat moss posted:

Yeah, that's definitely along the right lines, but I'm mostly looking for games where this is the core gameplay loop. In your average Roguelike that chest is an optional bonus that might contain treasure but you could also get that radical battleaxe by defeating an enemy or finding it lying on the ground. In Neon Abyss in particular, it's essentially the only way to earn loot.

I'm looking for a game that makes that the core gameplay loop and makes it actually fun, involved and interesting - because I don't want to write a one-sided article about how this is a bad mechanic just because I'm frustrated by a few implementations of it, I'd like to also take a look at a game that goes whole hog and does it well.
(And I'm kind of wondering if it even can be "done well" when going whole hog, like, is this just something that devs should avoid because it's never fun?)

Immortal Redneck - roguelite FPS where within runs you power up with scrolls. You don�t know a scroll�s effects when you pick it up, and some can basically end a run. It also sort of sucks here when you get the bad ones, but I think would be fine if like a few of the worst were removed.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 15:37

Shine: Feb 26, 2007; No Muscles For The Majority

I read your list and it made me realize I haven't played Monster Hunter World in a bit, so I'm gonna go grab a giant metal bagpipe and smash some dinosaurs.

And yeah, the Defender and Guardian gear are straight up built-in cheat gear designed to basically skip the early game. I know it's hard to just ignore a cheat that the game puts right in your face and encourages you to use, but if you can ignore it, then you'll experience the actual gameplay loop of smashing monsters, to get parts, to make better weapons, to smash meaner monsters, repeat for a few hundred hours. But if it doesn't grab ya, it doesn't grab ya. I loving love that game so much, and I've only dabbled with a third of the weapons.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 17:51

SlothfulCobra: Mar 27, 2011

PhoenixFlaccus posted:

1 Treadmills. 2 Earnestness. 3 Style. 4 Skills. 5 Strategy. 6 Progression. 7 Loot. 8 Exploration and discovery. 9 Good movement. 11 A hard mode/post game that rewards familiarization with and exploitation of systems. 12 An ending. 13 Scoreboards/Results Screen/Ranking 14 Coop.15 Competition.

Witcher 3 has Earnestness, Style, Exploration, an Ending, a hard mode if you wanna up the difficulty, Loot, and Progression. There's a reason why it's so acclaimed.

Dark Souls (all them, and then Demon Souls and Bloodborne) has Style, Exploration, challenge, Co-op, and Progression. Sekiro comes from the tradition of those games. There's a lot of ways you can dive into the series, but you've gotta at least give the first Dark Souls a try because it's the one where everything really clicked and it's pretty influential throughout the game industry. There's also Dragon's Dogma, which is a weird game with Loot, Exploration, a challenging Postgame, Progression, and a pretty unique combat system. It's sort of a weird parallel universe Dark Souls that made a bunch of big game design choices that largely didn't get picked up by the industry at large.

I've actually been playing Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order lately, and it's pretty impressive. It takes a lot of influence from Dark Souls, especially in its basic combat mechanics, but it puts more emphasis into Movement and Exploration. It also takes influence from a slew of other games, like taking a little of Metroid Prime's exploration system, and Uncharted's cinematics. All the elements don't exactly fuse well, and the writing's a bit janky, but it's a hell of a thing.

I know Hades has been blowing up everywhere, but you could go play the other games from Supergiant Games. They all have an amount of Earnestness and pretty good gameplay leading into interesting endings. Bastion is my favorite, but you might be more interested in Transistor, since its combat system is sort of a hybrid system where your abilities are on cooldown that you have to dodge enemies between taking your turns. A little like Megaman Battle Network. Also it has some of the most atmospheric music you'll find while exploring the digital world.

You could also go check out Mass Effect. I don't really know how they put the series together in the Legendary Edition, but Mass Effect 2 has some of my favorite gameplay ever. You have cover-based shooting plus an assortment of special powers to fight with, and you can pause the game to think out the tactics of how to approach an encounter and order your squadmates around to help things out. I feel like Control actually has a weird amount of Mass Effect's DNA hanging around. Possibly there may be a game in the works to recreate ME3's multiplayer mode, which is really acclaimed.

And I guess I'd also recommend Shadow of the Colossus for anther game about exploring a big atmospheric world, and Valkyria Chronicles for another approach to turn-based tactical combat, although I'd also warn that Valkyria Chronicles maybe has too much cutscenes and talking for the amount of gameplay.

SlothfulCobra fucked around with this message at 18:45 on Jul 15, 2021

# ? Jul 15, 2021 18:41

MikeRabsitch: Aug 23, 2004; Show us what you got, what you got

PhoenixFlaccus posted:

Will check it out. Sounds a lot like Stardew? Loved Stardew. It�s also on game pass.

Yeah it's like 3D Stardew with a surprising amount of treadmills. There's a bit of jank and grind to it, but definitely worth checking out on game pass.

# ? Jul 15, 2021 19:27

PhoenixFlaccus: Jul 15, 2011; KFC Famous Bowl

Afriscipio posted:

Have you played Shovel Knight?

I started it and liked it but haven�t gone back yet. Def need to do that.

Shine posted:

I read your list and it made me realize I haven't played Monster Hunter World in a bit, so I'm gonna go grab a giant metal bagpipe and smash some dinosaurs.

Thanks for the advice. I really want to like it. It definitely ticks the style box and a few others. Will have to give it another shot.

SlothfulCobra posted:

Witcher 3
Dark Souls
Dragon's Dogma
Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order
Bastion is my favorite, but you might be more interested in Transistor
Mass Effect 2
Control
Shadow of the Colossus
Valkyria Chronicles

First off thanks for the considered response.

Witcher 3 and Transistor I started but something else pulled me away and made me forget about them. It was too early to get an idea of whether they�re up my alley and I should go back.

ME2 was great. I have only played 2 and Andromeda, and liked them both for very different reasons. I thought the movement and combat in Andromeda was very fun, but the world building in 2 was amazing. Loved reading about the different species and I liked my squad.

Control was dope and way in my wheelhouse.

I started Jedi yesterday and am enjoying it so far. Not even to the first boss yet though (if this has bosses? Surely it does). Spent a lot of time trying to dial in the graphics to get a steady 60fps with no tearing. I have a 3070 but my Ryzen 1600 might not be up to the task at higher resolutions than 1080.

I played all of Bloodborne and a little bit of 3 and enjoyed it but am not a huge fan of the atmosphere of those games. It�s simply unpleasant imo. The Japanese setting of Sekiro and super fun movement pulled me through and it�s probably top 10 all time for me.

Dragon�s Dogma, SotC, and Valkyria are all games I�m aware of but just didn�t think were going to be my jam, but if these criteria made you think of them I will give them a shot probably starting with SotC.

All of the suggestions from everyone are now on a list on my phone and will get touched eventually (even Dark Souls). Thanks!

# ? Jul 15, 2021 19:59

Kvlt!: May 19, 2012

Looking for a good game where you can design your own mechs. Preferably strategy/tactics based than action, but I'm wicked interested in any game that has a in depth/cool mech-designing and building aspect (on PC please)

# ? Jul 19, 2021 11:56

Sandwich Anarchist: Sep 12, 2008

Kvlt! posted:

Looking for a good game where you can design your own mechs. Preferably strategy/tactics based than action, but I'm wicked interested in any game that has a in depth/cool mech-designing and building aspect (on PC please)

Battletech is exactly what you want.

# ? Jul 19, 2021 13:12

Kvlt!: May 19, 2012

That does look perfect. Ty!

# ? Jul 19, 2021 14:17

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# ? May 26, 2024 01:59

deep dish peat moss: Jul 27, 2006

Kvlt! posted:

That does look perfect. Ty!

If you really want to get into designing your mechs in it, I recommend the RogueTech mod

https://www.nexusmods.com/battletech/mods/79

It's kind of a pain to install if I remember right (download an installer, wade through a million options, things break) but it is one of those mods that revolutionizes the game in a way that the official game would never revolutonize itself, with a much, much higher focus on customizability, choices between different equipment types, etc.

It's a lot more complicated than the base game though so give vanilla a try first!

deep dish peat moss fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Jul 19, 2021

# ? Jul 19, 2021 15:06

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Video Games > Recommend me a game, again

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