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Shine posted:The best video game writing was the original release of Space Rangers 2, which had an awkward Russian-to-English translation that typically came off not as a lovely translation, but as everybody speaking some interstellar English dialect from the future, which made it the most immersive writing of all time. Man some of the text adventures in that were complete incomprehensible nonsense, it was incredible. I still remember one about a... haunted house? Where my character had to work out which of the mirrors were his real self and distinguished between the "real world" and the "actual world" and by the end I have no idea if it was a bad translation, he was insane, I was insane or all three
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Dec 3, 2022 01:35
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:Man some of the text adventures in that were complete incomprehensible nonsense, it was incredible. I still remember one about a... haunted house? Where my character had to work out which of the mirrors were his real self and distinguished between the "real world" and the "actual world" and by the end I have no idea if it was a bad translation, he was insane, I was insane or all three Lmao I love that game so much.
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Dec 3, 2022 02:40
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The way I see it, the main difference between D:OS and Numenera is the intent. Divinity is fully aware of what kind of story it is (i.e. fantasy schlock) and isn't afraid to poke fun at itself (which misses more often than it hits but at least it's there). Numenera is a pretentious slog through a mixture of boredom and banality. I wouldn't call the writing in either good, but I enjoyed D:OS 2 quite a bit while Numenera dialogue was just pure suffering.
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Dec 3, 2022 02:41
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:Absolutely none of the mediocre writing in OS is as inexcusable as a thousand pages of whatever this is I mean, that's not so bad. My only issue there is that they do the setting exposition dump, but refuse to do the other exposition dumps on account of time.
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Dec 3, 2022 08:13
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Lots of good suggestions (and inevitably strong opinions). OP specifically asked for well written games - and mentioned playing Pathologic as well as Disco Elysium which means they enjoy games that have cool “fail-states” where you can mess things up and the game allows for it instead of save-scumming. With those criteria the best fitting games that have already been mentioned are: Fallout New Vegas Tyranny The Witcher 2 and 3 Age of Decadence King of Dragon Pass Planescape Torment I’ll go to bat for most every other game y’all have mentioned though  E: left a few out that I a hardened old school rpgs enthusiast only install when I have a week off work - they are a pain in the rear end to run on a modern computer or they are really janky Fruits of the sea fucked around with this message at 09:32 on Dec 3, 2022 |
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Dec 3, 2022 09:18
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Gee, didn't think I'd prompt this amount of discussion. I know that writing in games is subjective, but people seem to rave about certain games more than others (Disco Elisyum being one example), so I figured it'd be easier for people to go "Oh, you haven't played wRPGs? Sure, here are 3-5 that the majority adores!" Yeah, can't say I'm enjoying Divinity's story that much, but it's servicable, and since I've never played a wRPG, the amount of choice to any given problem seems overwhelming. Definitely feel like I couldn't find the solution to one of the quests, but blasting the locked door helped me, which is a new feeling in a video game for me. Pathologic and DE appealed to me through well-written worlds with dry humor, although being able to gently caress up and keep going certainly helps. Divinity does seem like a step back on all fronts and tries to be funny way too much (although it does succeed sometimes!), but there's still that sense of exploration and unknown that appeals to me. I think for now I'll go with Planescape and Baldur's Gates since people seem to agree that they're one of the better ones. A bit afraid to touch fallouts since 1 and 2 are old and NV has a reputation for being the most unstable game.
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Dec 3, 2022 14:13
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Some more "greatest hits": If you can get your hands on it, try Alpha Protocol. it's basically a spy RPG that lets you play as James Bond, Jason Bourne, or Jack Bauer, with a pretty well written story (in the sense that it's a campy spy movie with memorable characters and branching content depending on the order in which you do missions). Deus Ex (did really nobody recommend this. The original one, not the more recent games, though they're... fine.) To elaborate on the Dragon age series. Maybe this is considered for the plebes and goons are above it, but Origins was really well received. DA2 is... rough, but some people love it. Dragon Age: Inquisition is bloated with MMORPG nonsense but I found it enjoyable if you just go through it with the intention of skipping the nonsense fluff and going straight for story missions as soon as possible. the series is super popular, and Origins is heralded as one of the greatest recent wRPGs. The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion and Skyrim. Morrowind was recommended before, and definitely a highlight in terms of writing, but Oblivion and Skyrim are rightfully the ones that actually propelled the series to mass appeal. The writing is mostly "serviceable", but they're great games for just exploring the world and breathing in the atmosphere, reading the in-world books and learning about the lore, etc. Oblivion in particular has (in my opinion) a fairly magical / fairytale quality to it, and the writing is better (all the various guilds have questlines that are highly regarded to decent, and the various quests you get in towns are actually memorable compared to Skyrim's copy-paste fetch quests). Conversely Skyrim is more modern and a bit more of a unique setting than Oblivion (fantasy Scandinavia that is in a civil war against fantasy Rome). You can get them both fairly cheap on sales. With regards to Fallout New Vegas, definitely play it. It's a little bit janky but honestly, it doesn't require much to get running and even purely vanilla it's a good experience with good writing, and it only really gets unstable when you start bolting millions of mods on it.
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Dec 3, 2022 14:37
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God I didn’t mean to cause so much discussion about Torment Tides of Numenara. I don’t care about the game, I’ve never played it, and I didn’t put it on my list for a reason. It was just a passing comment that “hey, there’s this game people call a spiritual successor”. Definitely a your mileage may vary situation. Vookatos, I bounced off the Divinity games as well. They’re not badly written, but they’re not great writing either. You’ve unfortunately spoiled yourself by starting with Disco Elysium as that’s one of the best if not the best written RPGs out there. If Disco Elysium was your jam then I’d say to try either 1) Planescape Torment or 2) Arcanum Arcanum is a classic. It has the trappings of a classic fantasy RPG, but the fantasy world is undergoing the Industrial Revolution, with all the societal changes you would expect. And magic does not mix well with technology—each breaks the other when in close proximity. The player is thrust into a mystery, and at each step to solve it finds themselves stuck deeper and deeper into a conspiracy. The unique setting really makes the game fresh compared to standard fantasy fare. The gameplay is middling—the combat system is finicky and not well balanced. You’ll need the Unofficial Patch which is simple to install, but otherwise will not require other mods.
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Dec 3, 2022 14:41
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Not to yuck anyone's yum but every time I see someone say that Oblivion or Skyrim have good writing I physically cringe. I haven't seen a single quest in either those two games that I could even call good. It's all either some cookie-cutter bullshit or, when it occasionally tries to do something that isn't 100% predictable , the gameplay part of it falls about and just shits itself all over the place, like that one "Whodunit?" quest in Oblivion that everyone mentions being great. I have never seen that quest not break completely.
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Dec 3, 2022 15:00
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Remembering the Oblivion mages guild questline and frowning deeply (Skyrim's guilds are definitely worse overall though, like whatever on earth that thieves guild storyline was)
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Dec 3, 2022 15:03
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Deltasquid posted:Some more "greatest hits": This one is a must. To this day there has not been another game that does branching story like it. It's jank, it's unfinished in places, but you absolutely have to try it. It might not seems much on just one playthrough, but if you play again and try to do the opposite of what you chose before, you'll see some crazy poo poo.
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Dec 3, 2022 15:35
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Vookatos posted:I think for now I'll go with Planescape and Baldur's Gates since people seem to agree that they're one of the better ones. A bit afraid to touch fallouts since 1 and 2 are old and NV has a reputation for being the most unstable game. Solid choices and we'd love to hear your first-time experiences in the infinity engine thread! Jack Trades posted:that one "Whodunit?" quest in Oblivion that everyone mentions being great. I have never seen that quest not break completely. That's what makes the quest good, the broken AI is funny. I'd never recommend it as "good" writing though. At some point the quest scripters realised that the npcs were a clown show and leaned into it.
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Dec 3, 2022 16:12
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Jack Trades posted:Not to yuck anyone's yum but every time I see someone say that Oblivion or Skyrim have good writing I physically cringe. I'm gona confirm that Alpha Protocol is, indeed, really good at doing what it set out to do, and the original Deus Ex has some suprisingly relevant commentary for a game about conspiracy theories being real. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 16:18 on Dec 3, 2022 |
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Dec 3, 2022 16:14
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Deltasquid posted:To elaborate on the Dragon age series. Maybe this is considered for the plebes and goons are above it, but Origins was really well received. DA2 is... rough, but some people love it. Dragon Age: Inquisition is bloated with MMORPG nonsense but I found it enjoyable if you just go through it with the intention of skipping the nonsense fluff and going straight for story missions as soon as possible. the series is super popular, and Origins is heralded as one of the greatest recent wRPGs. But yeah, thanks for your suggestions, everyone! I'll check most of them out! By that time I'm sure something else will release that'll grab my attention or I'll be in the mood for something different.
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Dec 3, 2022 23:59
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grate deceiver posted:This one is a must. To this day there has not been another game that does branching story like it. It's jank, it's unfinished in places, but you absolutely have to try it. It might not seems much on just one playthrough, but if you play again and try to do the opposite of what you chose before, you'll see some crazy poo poo. It's one of the few games that's a lot of fun to come back to. That and sleeping dogs. I haven't played sleeping dogs for about a year, it's time.
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Dec 4, 2022 23:41
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grate deceiver posted:This one is a must. To this day there has not been another game that does branching story like it. It's jank, it's unfinished in places, but you absolutely have to try it. It might not seems much on just one playthrough, but if you play again and try to do the opposite of what you chose before, you'll see some crazy poo poo. 
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Dec 5, 2022 01:27
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Okay, so I’ve played Stardew to death, and most recently Dreamlight Valley. What are some other similar games I should check out? I’ve got an Xbox Series X, M1 Mac (with Crossover) and a recent iPad.
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Dec 5, 2022 15:53
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Zam Wesell posted:Okay, so I’ve played Stardew to death, and most recently Dreamlight Valley. What are some other similar games I should check out? Rune Factory 4S Graveyard Keeper My Time at Portia Without knowing what you liked about the games it's hard to be more specific but those are all popular releases. Honourable mention to Coral Island which is (very) early access still and is heavily inspired by both SDV and its predecessors. Rynoto fucked around with this message at 16:17 on Dec 5, 2022 |
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Dec 5, 2022 16:14
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Zam Wesell posted:Okay, so I’ve played Stardew to death, and most recently Dreamlight Valley. What are some other similar games I should check out? Rune Factory 4 My Time at Portia Everything else in the genre is a noticeable step down in fun, although some of the more recent releases are promising. Graveyard Keeper is like an anti-Stardew. Everyone is unhappy and depressed and the game semi-frequently punches you in the gut.
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Dec 5, 2022 21:54
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can anyone recommend a souls-like that is 2D or can run on a mediocre laptop. I really enjoyed Morbid: The Seven Acolytes but I've played it to death, so anything similar would be awesome. Bonus if its got lots of loot, but that's not a requirement.
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Dec 6, 2022 00:14
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Kvlt! posted:can anyone recommend a souls-like that is 2D or can run on a mediocre laptop. I really enjoyed Morbid: The Seven Acolytes but I've played it to death, so anything similar would be awesome. Bonus if its got lots of loot, but that's not a requirement.
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Dec 6, 2022 00:16
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anilEhilated posted:Salt and Sanctuary? Generally a lot of metroidvanias have started adopting soulslike mechanics. that looks wicked cool and like it's going to scratch the itch, thank you! EDIT: on the suggested page is Blasphemous which also looks good, anyone have thoughts on that?
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Dec 6, 2022 00:23
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Kvlt! posted:can anyone recommend a souls-like that is 2D or can run on a mediocre laptop. I really enjoyed Morbid: The Seven Acolytes but I've played it to death, so anything similar would be awesome. Bonus if its got lots of loot, but that's not a requirement. Hollow Knight
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Dec 6, 2022 00:30
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Hwurmp posted:Hollow Knight Great suggestion but played a ton of it. Blasphemous is 6 bucks rn so I think I'm gomna snag that one (and maybe Salt and Sanctuary too). Ty for the recs everyone
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Dec 6, 2022 00:33
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Blasphemous is good but it's not really Souls like at all other than some aesthetic elements, no real loot either so didn't think it would really be close enough
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Dec 6, 2022 00:51
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I appreciate that, I like metroidvanias too so I figured Id pick it up as well as SnS, esp since it was on sale.
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Dec 6, 2022 01:04
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Blasphemous was a really fun game. Extremely hard at points but very cool
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Dec 6, 2022 01:24
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:Blasphemous is good but it's not really Souls like at all other than some aesthetic elements, no real loot either so didn't think it would really be close enough It has the rosary and relics that together make a decent build system. Also, it has deliberate combat and you drop your money when you die until you retrieve it. The world is lore-heavy but rarely explained. It ticks all the boxes I think
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Dec 6, 2022 19:26
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Manager Hoyden posted:It has the rosary and relics that together make a decent build system. Also, it has deliberate combat and you drop your money when you die until you retrieve it. The world is lore-heavy but rarely explained. It ticks all the boxes I think i played a few hours last night and havent noticed the money-retrieval thing, all my money is just still there when i respawn.
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Dec 6, 2022 19:32
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Writing in games is dire for the most part. However, three story heavy games I liked recently were Paradise Killer, a visual detective novel, Soma, existential horror, and Signalis, cosmic horror. Very different tones, but they had interesting plots and world building.
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Dec 6, 2022 20:05
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Afriscipio posted:Writing in games is dire for the most part. However, three story heavy games I liked recently were Paradise Killer, a visual detective novel, Soma, existential horror, and Signalis, cosmic horror. Very different tones, but they had interesting plots and world building. Pentiment is entirely unlike those three (well, there's a whodunit element so I guess there's some common ground with PK) but it's also very good. Being a history dork is not required but it will increase your enjoyment imo
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Dec 6, 2022 22:12
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Kvlt! posted:i played a few hours last night and havent noticed the money-retrieval thing, all my money is just still there when i respawn. Oh you're right I was remembering it wrong. It reduces your mana and reduces the money you can get from enemies until you get back to your corpse. Similar deal though
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Dec 6, 2022 23:29
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Afriscipio posted:Writing in games is dire for the most part. However, three story heavy games I liked recently were Paradise Killer, a visual detective novel, Soma, existential horror, and Signalis, cosmic horror. Very different tones, but they had interesting plots and world building. 13 Sentinels if you own a Switch or a maybe a different device that can play Switch games.
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Dec 7, 2022 00:38
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Jack Trades posted:13 Sentinels if you own a Switch or a maybe a different device that can play Switch games. 13 Sentinels is on just about everything, and the Switch is probably the worst platform to play it on given a choice. Unless they improved the performance in the later defense levels? Because hoo-boy could they chug on the PS4 when the screen filled with incoming missiles.
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Dec 7, 2022 10:39
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Neddy Seagoon posted:13 Sentinels is on just about everything, and the Switch is probably the worst platform to play it on given a choice. Unless they improved the performance in the later defense levels? Right but you can't play PS4 games on other devices, but you can play Switch games on other devices.
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Dec 7, 2022 10:40
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Looking for some games that fall under Mystery, Puzzle, The Room/escape room-esque, or Point & Click that play well on Steam Deck control scheme-wise. I thought that Strange Horticulture was going to totally be my jam, but it ended up relying too much on trackpads / floaty joystick cursor which was frustrating to interact with stuff. By contrast, Kentucky Route Zero has a pretty excellent control scheme since it has been ported to console. Some games already on my radar that are next up to play but haven't tried out yet on Steam Deck are Disco Elysium, NORCO, Return of the Obra Dinn, and The Case of the Golden Idol, but am looking to bolster my wishlist before the next Steam Sale since I'll be off from work for a few months starting next year.
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Dec 8, 2022 00:12
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I'm looking for a new Co-op FPS. All time favorite is still Halo. I really expected something would have dethroned it by now, but nope. Already played Vermintide (liked this a lot more than L4D), DRG, Gears, Destiny (boo), EDF. LLSix fucked around with this message at 04:29 on Dec 9, 2022 |
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Dec 9, 2022 04:27
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LLSix posted:I'm looking for a new Co-op FPS. Have you tried light-gun games? Like Umbrella/Darktide Chronicles
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Dec 9, 2022 04:54
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LLSix posted:I'm looking for a new Co-op FPS. There's Warframe, which is a free to play, game as a service kind of thing. Very much designed around co-op. It's been around for years so there's a ton of content to play. The game has a robust movement system, you can bounce around like a Sonic on steroids. They recently added cross-platform play so people can use a console if they like.
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Dec 9, 2022 08:07
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JUNGLE BOY posted:Looking for some games that fall under Mystery, Puzzle, The Room/escape room-esque, or Point & Click that play well on Steam Deck control scheme-wise. If you can grab a friend, I really recommend The Past Within. Very cool asymmetrical puzzling.
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Dec 9, 2022 08:44
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