See Master thread for links to other countries threads and poll, read rules, and tell me which country should receive a thread next:

https://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/thread/249268/master-thread-favorite-games-from-different-countries/

The next country for this series of threads is Belgium. I have been wanting to cover this country for a while. It is always more fun, when a country has some games that are genuinely part of the mainstream discussions about all time greats, and Belgium has one, and another that is not far behind. While there is only one major studio to talk about, I found some interesting releases from the country. For instance – when Atari launched the Jaguar, they wanted a Mario Kart competitor, and got belgian Miracle Designs to develop it, who would have thought?

Please share with me your favorite Belgian game(s) by voting in the poll or by posting a comment.

Some notable Belgian developers and their games:

Larian Studios

I hesitated making this thread for very very long, as Belgium has one pristine video game development studio, and very little else. The topic can almost be reduced to: What is your favorite Larian Studios game? They are by far the most relevant studio in the country, and has been for many years. The Divinity series of games has gone from cult classics in the early years to mainstream success with Original Sin I and II. Nobody could have predicted the level of success they would gain with their next game Baldur’s Gate 3 though, which resurrects the classic BioWare franchise. Often included in the conversation of best games of the current decade.

Notable games:

Divine Divinity

Beyond Divinity

Divinity II

Divinity: Dragon Commander

Divinity: Original Sin

Divinity: Original Sin II

Baldur's Gate 3

Appeal Studios

Action-adventure game Outcast may not be so well remembered, but it was actually quite huge when it released back in 1999, even getting nominated for game-of-the-year awards. It still has a strong cult following, but unfortunately Appeal never got to cement their status as they went under during the development of Outcast 2, which never got released. Fast forward a few decades, and THQ Nordic had a period where they liked throwing money around at unusual projects. Appeal got resurrection, and Outcast got a sequel. Outcast: A New Beginning released to mixed reviews.

Notable game:

Outcast

Outcast: A New Beginning

Other games to consider:

Zarathrusta

Atari Karts

The Path

The Endless Forest

OFF

Outcast ('99)

Back in days, this was sort of a technical miracle game, open world action adventure that was using smooth terrain approach similar to what Comanche: Maximum Overkill did back in days, which couldn't be rendered via GPUs of that period, so it used software 3D renderer running fully on CPU, thus requiring extremely powerful CPUs. But not only it was technical miracle, in the era where most 3D action-adventures were completely linear, this was a great open world action-adventure with a lot of features that we take for granted these days.

As for Larian - anyone who knows me around here, knows I'm not a big fan of their CRPGs. They are great if you look at them from one very specific angle, which is as a megadungeon crawlers (which is what structurally they are), but although they are masquerading themselves as fully fledged CRPGs, they area quite lacking if analyzed as that.

Though it seems unlikely as I've had little to do with Amiga, I think I've tried Zarathrusta somewhere.
Nothing really for me from Belgium.