For me: Easily Portal 2.
A deeply rich story, funny dialogue, and great puzzles that will truly make your brain think. The story is very rich and spans across several different eras of Aperture history, going as far back as the 50s. The dialogue is funny and some of the lines are the most memorable in all of gaming (like the Cave Johnson lemon rant). And last but not least, the puzzles are great. They start off pretty simple, but as you progress further in the story, they get more and more complicated, especially when you get the repulsion gel and proposion gel. I feel like Portal 2 is the Gold Standard for puzzle games that every game that comes after it will be judged on.
Also, if you don’t own Portal 2 yet, now is a fantastic time to get it - it’s on sale for $1 on Steam, same with Portal 1. And if you want both games, the bundle containing both games is $1.50. Do not miss out on this offer, it’s so worth it.
Oh man, Portal 1 was amazing. Amazing offer!
If you already have beaten Portal 2 you should check out Portal Revolution. Free mod with voice acting and a lot of new puzzles.
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Okay you do some good advertising I’m considering the purchase
Don’t consider, act, that game fucks and it fucks hard.
My favorite moment of Portal 2 is easily Cave Johnson’s lemon rant. Easily one of the best quotes in all of video game history.
“All right, I’ve been thinking. When life gives you lemons? Don’t make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back! Get mad! I don’t want your damn lemons! What am I supposed to do with these? Demand to see life’s manager! Make life rue the day! It thought it could give Cave Johnson lemons! Do you know who I am? I’m the man who’s going to burn your house down! With the lemons! I’m going to get my engineers to invent a combustible lemon that burns your house down! [COUGHING]”
Absolutely golden.
Was that the same dude that was the lawyer in the British show ‘Outlaws’?
I swear they sound the same.
It’s J. K. Simmons, he was in a lot of stuff so probably.
Woah not at all who I thought, I thought it was Stephen Merchant.
Stephan Merchant didn’t voice Cave Johnston but he did voice Wheatley, another character from Portal 2.
Also, if I had to pick, resident evil 7 and 8. The best story games period and the best horror games period.
Go in cold! And definitely play Portal first. It’s really short.
I just bought it two weeks ago for 10$. Excellent game though. Well worth 2 coffees!
Stardew Valley.
Its revolver has continuously released huge updates for free and has commuted to never charging for dlc.
The games mechanics are pretty great and nothing in the game requires too much grinding to get.
Even when you “finish” the game, there are still things to do and starting a new files is always fun.
The characters are all great and have unique personalities. It really makes you feel like you are part of the town.
My wife and I have over 400 hours on a single file. It’s also enjoyable starting a new file. I like to challenge myself to see how quickly I can do certain objectives in the game.
It’s also decently cheap and has a huge community behind it.
To anyone who hasn’t played this yet, if you buy it on console or mobile, the huge 1.6 patch is set to release November 4th.
From what I have seen, if you can play it on PC, do it, as you can get all kinds of mods and stuff that aren’t available on console. I played it on Switch years ago and then would see youtube videos of people playing the PC version and it looked like a different game altogether.
The game is just perfect. Many farms were made and many hours spent.
My only complaint is that there isn’t more of the game 😂
Luckily mods solve this.
I bought it some time ago but I kind not got into it, and it saddens me because I only hear good things about it.
Any advice?
Well not every game is for everybody. This just might not be for you.
Without knowing you better, I’d advise things like.
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take it slow, there is no rush to do anything.
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it’s ok to sleep early if you can think of something to do.
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you can really lose in this game.
Thank you
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factorio
the dedication of the dev is perceptible, almost unlimited replay value and the will release a major extension in 9 days that looks wonderful.
What? I thought the space DLC was months away!
It’s happening!
Could you explain the appeal to someone who hasnever played anything similar? I played RCT3, but I don’t know how comparable that is.
I haven’t played RCT so not sure how I compares.
But Factorio is first of, a sandbox game. You can build however you want in your own tempo. Not sure what you mean by finicky?
But I don’t think it’s tedious micromanagement at all. it feels super good when you build something new and it works. And there is so many technologies and it’s jus fun exploring how everything works together and coming up with new designs!
There is also enemies, but can be turned off if you just want to focus on building a Factory. I mostly play with them, building up defences and killboxes and making automated train supply that comes with ammo, wall, etc.
It has a demo you can try out. It’s scenarios so you try out different base mechanics in the game. But the actual game is a sandbox game.
I came here to say this. I’ve been gaming since the early 80s. Factorio is top 5 for me.
Outer Wilds.
If you like space games and puzzle games (in the sense that you need to piece together the situation you’re in), this is a great choice.
Highly recommend not looking anything up before you play.
Just did the dlc for outer wilds recently. It was refreshing how it added to the story without detracting from the main game but It was pretty damn scary for me, a person who doesn’t play horror games. I still think it’s worth it. Somewhat odd choice for the dlc when the main game was mainly an archaeological space puzzle but they made it work.
The coolest thing when you start the DLC is that you realize that this whole thing has just been out there the entire time you’ve been playing and you didn’t know it. Then you finally get there and you can play the entire DLC while the rest of the game keeps going without you.
I love puzzle games and was so excited to play it, especially after friends that I value the opinion about games claimed it was the best game they’ve ever played.
I’ve tried, but it didn’t grip me and I gave up after 2 days of trying to get into it.
Maybe one day when the universe thinks it’s the right time for me.
Subnautica
Hades
I think everyone should play factorio for at least a few hours. It will be some of the most interesting 17 months of their lives.
Is it a time lapse game? Where you play for like an hour, then suddenly the sun is down?
And you’re absolutely starving, yes.
I would personally recommend Satisfactory over Factorio. I think it’s a more casual experience while still scratching that factory building itch.
Factorio is a casual game. You see a person with a massive base that makes a gazillion science packs a minute, don’t get intimidated. They have no clue what they’re doing either, and probably already forgot how a third of their factory is put together. They have just been in the game for longer.
I don’t mean less casual in that sense. I actually had 3 main points in mind that make satisfactory more casual.
First are the aliens. The evolution and pollution doesn’t stop which means in a way you are fighting against time. If you don’t keep up with it the aliens will attack and destroy your base. I know they can be turned off but the game is designed with their attacks in mind and you’re skipping entire production lines if you turn them off.
The second reason is factory building. I think the extra dimension in Satisfactory makes factory building much easier. If you run out of space horizontally, build up. In Factorio you better plan out how big your factory is going to be because if you run out of space you’re probably going to start spaghettifying your factory or you need to start tearing down parts of your factory to make more space. In my current satisfactory factory I just built a whole new level ontop of my old factory because I couldn’t be bothered to clean it up.
And the last point goes together with the previous point. You have so many things you need to produce. The entire belt production thing for example. If you want express belts you need to build the fast belts which needs the basic belts. If you want express splitters you’re going to have to build the fast splitter, which needs the basic splitter which requires basic belts. Meanwhile in Satisfactory if you want a faster belt you just need the new material for the belt. Factorio production pipelines are like a deep well while Satisfactory production lines are more like a wide puddle (that only towards the very end can go deep, like ficsonium fuel rods). Satisfactory has overall a wider variety of things to produce (if we exclude the tiered items in Factorio), but they’re much less dependent on each other. For example if your industrial beam production isn’t at peak performance that not going to stop you from getting the higher tier belts because they need aluminum which are built from a completely different raw material. Solve aluminum production and you get new belts. Compare that to Factorio where, lets say you want to start using express belts but you’ve been kinda winging your belt production. Well first you need to fix your fast belt production, which then means you need to fix your basic belt production which means you need to fix your iron production which means you have to scale up your iron mining.
The factory can grow over your head but Satisfactory still has easier production pipelines, easier factory planning and you can take however long you want to figure out how to build your factory. To me all of those things indicate that Satisfactory is a more casual experience.
Crosscode, Disco Elysium, Outer Wilds, Celeste, Fallout: New Vegas
+1 for Crosscode! I will admit the terrain puzzles can feel tedious after a while, but goodness, this game has great mechanics, story, and charm. One of my favorite games of all time.
I am so excited for the next game coming out by Radical Fish Games.
S-tier list
I bought crosscode some months ago on GOG and I’m slowly working through it.
I’m constantly amazed at how it feels like a grand AAA mmorpg. The complexity of the maps is astounding (sometimes at a fault) and there is a lot of stuff to do. A tales of grindea on steroids, if you will
Strongly recommended if you enjoy the genre
Half life, all of them, in order
There’s only 2 right? Exculding That VR version
There are two expansions for the first one, Opposing Force and Blue Shift. These explore the same events, from the points of view of different characters.
After the second one there are also the two shorter, stand alone, stories, Episode One and Episode two. These continue the story from the point of view of the protagonist.
Kerbal Space Program
OG Kerbal Space Program is the best. The sequel, Kerbal Space Program 2, had a lot of missing features from the original KSP, and it is still in Early Access. The developer, Intercept Games, was also closed by Take-Two Interactive, and this game has not had any major update in months. It is clear that Take-Two has completely abandoned KSP 2, and it is still on sale. But it might not be for much longer, because it is literally on life support at this point, only getting patches and bug fixes.
Wouldn’t be surprised if Kerbal Space Program 2 ends up getting delisted at some point in the future.
Am happy to concede that I’m just a dumb dumb, but to say that I was confused by both what to do and how to do it would be a wild understatement.
Cyberpunk 2077. I’ve been known to simp pretty hard for this game, but I do consider it to be one of the best games ever made. The story, the music, the acting, the gameplay, the visuals… Every single part of the game is just masterfully done. I feel it’s one of those games that everybody should play; a sort of “milestone” game like Ocarina of Time or Skyrim. Even if you’re not a fan of FPS or RPGs, it’s worth turning down the difficulty and playing just to experience the best story ever told through a video game, in my opinion.
It’s a great story, and one of my favorites—I’m still replaying it. But I think the best story ever told through a video game is RDR2. But those are my two favorite games, so you really can’t go wrong either way.
+1 for RDR2. Probably the best game I’ve ever played, made me cry several times. 10/10
I was very much into the game but then came keanue reeves. I like this guy, but having a famous actor in a video game completely breaks it for me.
I was out and lost all drive but continued. I never fully finished it though.
The City and npcs are very well made though.
Exact same feeling for me
Unpopular Opinion: Cyberpunk is gameplay wise just a reskin of Far Cry
I haven’t actually played any of the Far Cry games, so I couldn’t speak to that. But if they play anything like Cyberpunk, I might have to give them a shot!
Original Far Cry is pretty neat actually. It was an odd series where it went from “Large levels shooter” to “Flawed open world shooter with cool fire” to the modern “Go all over, climb towers for more map, and upgrade stuff” formula.
Like Crysis afterwards, it felt like a “tech demo game”.
The original Far Cry was fun even though it feels VERY dated these days. The AI can be challenging, the weapons are fun enough, and about 50-60% through the game you start fighting ridiculously unbalanced enemies that frustrated everyone! :D But it’s still good in the way a silly B-movie is good.
Better version of similar gameplay? Crysis. Crysis was so cool.
Not everyone likes every genre of game - so here’s my grouped list:
The “I’m a nerd and like to build things and I like to watch lava lamps flow” Factorio
The “I enjoy tough but fair games that I can totally become OP in once I figure it out” Elden Ring
The “I just want to chill” game Stardew Valley
The “I like to build things” game minecraft Honorable mention-Terraria
The “Metroidvania” game Hollow Knight
The “Arpg” game Diablo 2 Honorable mention - PoE
The “I like action and smashing things in an open world” game Neir Automata Honorable mention - God of war (play one of the originals so you can 1st hate the remake, and then get to THAT point, and then happily eat crow and let Kratos be your baby daddy.
Maybe I’m doing something wrong but Stardew Valley stresses me out way more than many other games. There’s so little time
I managed to get into Stardew after some insistence, but I also struggled with this for a long time and I know exactly why in my case after coming back to harvest moon for a bit: the player character is too slow. You spend soooo much time walking and unlike HM/RF you don’t have a sprint button, so everything becomes more stressful to do.
Yeah you’re running by default but it can easily take an in-game hour to get anywhere. When you’re done with the plants or animals you have to race to get to the shops in order to be there before closing. Especially the blacksmith
See, after one year everything repeats indefinitely. You literally can’t miss anything. So there’s actually infinite time. If you’re stressing out like “omg spring is gone and I didn’t grow abc”. That’s what’s supposed to happen - you’ll grow it next spring.
Even the individual days go by so fast though
That’s why I prefer roots of pacha. You can make days 2x as long in the settings
I felt the same way when I tried playing it. I’m so glad I saw your comment - I feel less alone, lol.
I keep getting stuck at the beginning in Nier Automata. Is there really no option to save until after like 30+ mins of gameplay?
Unfortunately yes. Perfect dodging the first boss regularly gets you killed. So… Play worse. But I promise it’s the only part of the game like that.
Yup. There’s a story reason for it. It’s actually part of the charm of the game. But that first bit (which should be an intro cake walk, but isn’t) is a bad design choice IMO.
The game doesn’t punish you if you knock the difficulty down to easy for that section to get through it.
Hollow Knight is the king of a crowded Genre by far. The charm of the world building is spot on and just leaves you wanting more.
I’ve been impatiently waiting for Silksong since I accepted defeat on the endgame content of Hollow Knight for my own sanity.
Last Epoch is everything I wanted Diablo 3 to be without being a bit too much for me like PoE can be. Highly recommend it.
I have it. I don’t know why, but it won’t sink its claws into me. It’s a great game but something isn’t clicking for me. Most people like it though from what I can tell.
I would say, if you’re interested, the best way to see if it clicks is to give it’s best system it’s best chance. Which IMO is the skill spec. Find a class with a spell you like, give it a few points to transform and if it’s not getting you by then it never will.
For me it’s a perfect middle ground. More complex than Diablo but not as over the top as PoE. Not for everyone though, I totally respect that.
I have so many problems with Elden Ring. I know it is super popular, but the polish just isn’t there. Enemies hit you through walls and terrain, you will teleport to the ground dead sometimes when run around the many cliff faces, and most of the character builds seem weak compared to just strength great weapons.
I always hear stuff like this but in hundreds of hours of play on both PlayStation 5 and PC. I’ve never experienced any serious bugs. It’s so interesting to me that experiences can vary so much between people.
It depends on how you play for sure. But considering they hide items and secrets paths everywhere, the camera controls are horrendous. And I do not believe you managed to fight the fire giant and did not experience any bugs.
I’ve not even beaten the game and I’ve fallen through the map a few times randomly.
I’ve beaten the game about 6 times now and while I’ve certainly encountered minor glitches that made me laugh, I’ve never had issues that were game breaking at all. And the fire giant included.
Terraria
I would add Outer Wilds to the list.
You can really only play it once in a lifetime but I think it’s the best video game experiences available.
Honorable mention for Tunic and Cocoon for the same reason
I’ve tried to play it twice and barely make it 30 minutes in. Been meaning to try it again though because I keep hearing it’s amazing.
I haven’t seen it mentioned here, so I’ll rep for Noita. It’s an amazing rogue-like with great atmosphere and a really compelling world to explore.
There’s a chemistry/alchemy system in the game that is really detailed and fun to explore. The game’s tagline is “every pixel simulated,” and it’s not an exaggeration. Noita is like those falling sand games that were popular in the early 2000s, where each particle of sand could interact with other particles. Imagine that, but you’re a badass witch flying through the world and blasting motherfuckers who try to get in your way. Your wands can set things on fire or freeze them or melt them with acid or blow them up or other crazy shit.
The wand mechanics are incredibly deep. Like, it’s not “turing complete” levels of deep, but the rules for spells interact in incredibly interesting and exploitable ways. The feeling you get when you discover a powerful combo of spells is incredible.
The devs also have a cool policy of turning bugs into gameplay mechanics. I really can’t say much about this without spoiling things, so this one is hard to talk about. Basically, if someone finds an exploit, they oftentimes won’t “fix” it. Instead, they’ll take it and tweak it to add consequences for using the exploit, or they’ll balance it a bit to make it harder/remove a bit of the benefit. It’s a really cool approach and has lead to a great relationship between the devs and the community. They don’t take our toys away, they just make them work better in the world.
I played the game completely blind until I got my first win (it took about 80 hours of playtime), and I’d highly recommend that approach for folks who are willing to tolerate failure and who like to experiment. If it’s too frustrating then that’s okay, there are a lot of guides out there to help out new players without giving up too much. Many people describe your first win as you beating the tutorial, and there’s some truth to that.
It can be gruellingly difficult at times, but it’s just so damn good, and there’s so damn much of it. I have around 600 hours in in that game which is twice as much as any other game I’ve played.
I’ll back this up, and recommend people having a hard time look into Spell Labs on the steam workshop (and elsewhere) to help get further into the game. Once the game really clicks, it’s super satisfying. Even before then, the ridiculous wonder of all the things are great. It’s just as hard as it is amazing and that can be a turn off. There are other quality of life mods available in the workshop for people wanting to just enjoy the game, but the tutorial in Spell Labs is one of the biggest helps I got in unlocking progression.
Noita Together sessions were the big thing that turned the game into an obsession for me.
Noita is my favorite game that I’m terrible at, lol. I love Metroidvanias & everything Roguelike/Roguelite, so this game ticks the right boxes for me. I die in more spectacular ways Everytime I play, but still have a good time.
Nice try! I looked at the Steam reviews with people who had 600+ hours playing this game and said something like “it’s hard and cruel and punishing on a level we as a people have not experienced before” and I knew I would never have the time or patience to play this! 😄
Playing it blind is absolutely like that. In retrospect, I’m surprised that I stuck with it. I usually struggle with hard games! The atmosphere and mechanics were enough to keep me playing tho. Totally understand though, it’s not everything for everyone.
