The Discussion Thread - The 14th Annual Greatest Games Event

[Mnementh]

Runa216 said:

Mnementh said:

Interesting. I never came there, because I initially in the 90s played on PC and then slowly fell off gaming, until Wii and DS pulled me in. But at this point it weren't the exclusives alone, I hadn't played for many years and never console before, so that games there felt different.

Anyways, my recommendation would be to try out indies. They can give you the feeling of uniqueness, as indies aren't bound to bosses telling them chasing all the same trends, instead they can follow their quirky ideas. I am not saying every indie does that, but you will find that more often. The investment into them is also smaller than into AAA games, so it is simple to just drop a game that turns out to be a stinker and go on to the next. You don't need a modern PC, because many of the indies don't use most modern tech, but you should play on a PC, because even now that consoles have more indies than ever before, there is no comparison to the vast amount of indies available on PC.

Even with indies with year I had a lot of fun, notably 20 minutes till dawn and Against the Storm. I also played this year indies from a few years ago like Vampire Survivors or Rise to Ruins. And since I made this list I played Oxygen not Included, Factorio and Pony Island. Many of these games are a big change to console games, so if you want to take smaller steps an experience closer to what you know from console, I would start with games like A Short Hike and Graveyard Keeper, also very worthy games. I see you are not a completely stranger to indies with Cuphead and Terraria in your list, but seem mostly to stick to games that are similar to older console games like Yookah-Laylee, Axiom Verge and The Messenger. I would say try to step out a little out of your comfort zone and try PC indies like the ones I mentioned (some of them are on console, successful ones like Vampire Survivors). Maybe you feel fresh experiences outside of console exclusives.

I absolutely did mention that indies are a huge factor for me. Smaller games, pixel games, etc...they're all creeping up on me as well. Smaller games like The Messenger and Terraria and Minecraft (It started small) and Cuphead and Sea of Stars and Yooka-Laylee and Bloodstained...all games that have a very important place in my heart and I don't predict that changing any time soon. 

I love me some big AAA games like Zelda and Mario and God of War and Elden Ring and the like, but I think it's pretty important to balance out the big, bombastic, huge games with the smaller, experimental, unique games. 

Heck, I don't even LIKE most games, but I'm so glad we have an industry like we do. I See my buddies and folks online playing all these quirky games and genres that I'd never play myself and I'm just so happy they exist because it shows there's so much creativity and artistic merit out there. I'd never play Five Nights at freddy's myself...but it's such a unique, interesting concept that I'm glad it exists. I'm not into the unique trappings of Phoenix Wright but I see the appeal and I'm so glad it exists. Stuff like Dredge and Inscryption and Pony Island and so many other games are ideas that I think are SO unique and interesting and I'm SO glad they exist, even though I'd never play them myself. 

Gaming truly is in its most golden age right now and I just don't see anyone making a compelling argument to the contrary. I have nostalgia for the SNES, as my list makes pretty clear, but I think the range and versatility we're experiencing now is the best it has ever been. Yeah, we get garbage live services and consumer-milking nonsense but you can avoid literally every game that has ever had a microtransaction in it and still be overwhelmed with choice. I hate those practices but they aren't that hard to avoid if people hate it so much. 

but yeah, between Fromsoft, indies, and the various exclusives out there, I love seeing the medium progress in a positive direction.

and for as much as I am not shy about not liking Microsoft's exclusive games (I find they buy into the live service nonsense or procedural generation shit or just don't seem to give their games the polish they need or the creativity they deserve), some of the most fun, interesting, and unique games to come out lately are Xbox games...they're just small releases and not really selling consoles. Hi Fi Rush, Pentiment, Cuphead, Ori, and Vampire Survivors are all artistically important games and I'm so glad they exist....I just don't have an Xbox so I wait till they come out on Switch/PS because I'm not buying a console for Hi Fi rush and Pentiment, no matter how good they are. 

Yeah, I agree we entered a new golden age. For a long time I would've said the 90s were the golden age for video games, but recently we had so much good stuff. Sure, some AAA companies deliver more of the same rubbish, but if we look away for a moment we see so much interesting direction, be it middle range companies liek From Soft or Larian, or the indie explosion. New tools and the digital distribution channels have made it quite possible for small teams or even a single person to develop and release a game, so we see much more ideas followed and some of these ideas are great and picked up and refined by others. I mean you can just look at Vampire Survivors and the many games that took that recipe and refined it - and all that happened in a pretty short timeframe.