For me it’s first person puzzle games. I can think of maybe a dozen off the top of my head that came out in the last decade. I especially enjoy when they’re open world. The ability to just quit a puzzle that’s stumped you and go try something else for a little bit is incredibly refreshing.
Arena shooters!
I encourage anyone from southeast asia to join my xonotic server ;)
Similarly FPS-Z games like Tribes (Ascend, Vengeance, 2) and Legions Overdrive.
Fortunately MidAir 2 is almost here. https://store.steampowered.com/app/1231210/Midair_2/
Didn’t know this was a thing! What are they doing different from the original Midair? There was some hype for the first one but that seemed to fall off pretty quickly.
I miss classic arcade style games and puzzles.
I want more games like Resogun and Geometry Wars. And I’d love to see more of Archer Maclean’s Mercury.
I want more games like Resogun and Geometry Wars
Have you tried Nex Machina? By the same devs as Resogun, and it’s great no-nonsense arcade gameplay. Assault Android Cactus is another game of that type I really enjoyed too.
I did play Nex Machina. Forgot about that, it was so long ago. It was good, but Resogun was better. I think I tried Assault Android Cactus but barely lasted a couple of minutes. Don’t remember why.
For me are mystery and clue games such as Myst and 7th Guest. The scenery and thought of adventure that these titles used to bring as very rare and although Goragoa was quite recent, it was far too short.
Oh man, I remember 7th Guest that game was so cool - a video game with live action cut scenes! That was the same genre as Rama (1996)
Sandbox MMORPGs, like Eve Online or Ultima Online. The vast majority of MMORPGs since at least WoW (potentially even before that with games like Dark Ages of Camelot, etc) have been Theme Park MMOs. Which are fun; I’ve played plenty and still do play them. But I think the sandbox is more fun. Certainly has more possibilites.
Oh yeah? I haven’t played UO since 2003/2004, and I’ve largely stayed away from the free shards. Just had boring experiences in the past. But I might give this a try. Idk why, but I’ve been itching to check it out again. thanks!
Yeah I basically did the same thing. Got the itch about 7 months ago. Managed to get my original UO account back (you can open a support ticket and they’ll ask for info regarding the original, it was pretty painless) and messed around on Atlantic, the only really populated server. It’s just meh. They added so many stats to weapons it’s overwhelming and most are garbage. It’s so obnoxious having to look over each item to see if it’s worth anything. Also the classic and enhanced clients suck pretty bad.
Outlands is definitely the most polished and unique free shard. Check out their wiki, it goes over skill changes and lists some templates for starting out. Their custom ClassicUO client is excellent and has Razor built in. The one thing that may turn you off is it’s mostly open PVP once you leave Shelter Island. There is a sanctuary dungeon that rotates each week that doesn’t allow murderers in but it has reduced XP and gold.
Third person puzzle games with an engaging story like the Space Quest series, or The Dig. Also It Came From The Desert.
I am still very much in love with It Came From The Desert.
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First-person shooters, the way they were made in the 6th and 7th gens. A campaign, probably co-op, probably with split-screen or LAN, with some versus multiplayer that repurposed some slightly-remixed locations from the campaign that you can play with approximately 4-8 players. That’s all you need. Sometimes we still get some great FPS campaigns, like Half-Life: Alyx, but I haven’t really gotten the kind of co-op or versus multiplayer I’ve been looking for for over a decade. Not everything needs to be a live service. It can be a flash in the pan multiplayer that’s so good that you break it out when you have a few friends over or in a Discord call. Not every multiplayer FPS needs to be an e-sport with an online population of tens of thousands of players to matchmake with in ranked.
I also don’t really get racing games for me anymore. Star Wars: Episode One Racer, Burnout Revenge, and F-Zero GX truly spoke to me, and there were a few others that were close, but for the most part, if your racing game isn’t basically Mario Kart or full of real licensed cars in real places, it doesn’t get made. And the ones that aren’t Mario Kart don’t usually get split-screen multiplayer either, which is a must-have for me. I did get Trail Out in the recent past, which is very good, and there’s that game Aero GPX on the horizon to potentially give me my F-Zero fix, but the actual racing games I’m looking for are so few and far between.
Fortunately, this list used to be much longer, and all the other holdouts, like Advance Wars-esque tactics games, Resident Evil 1-esque survival horror games, Commandos-esque stealth tactics games, and a few others have all gotten their itches scratched.
As for the antigrav racers you mentioned, have you checked out BallisticNG? It leans more towards Wipeout than F-Zero, but even as a huge GX fan (and looking forward to Aero GPX myself) I’ve really enjoyed it. I believe it does have splitscreen as well, though I haven’t tried it personally.
It couldn’t hurt to try it out, but I always liked F-Zero more than Wipeout. At least it looks to be as fast as F-Zero.
It’s got a variety of speed settings that increase in difficulty, and it absolutely gets fast enough for anyone lol. I like it a lot more than the actual wipeout games I’ve tried even though its mechanics are more styled after that.
What’s a 6th and 7th gen? I think I’m too PCMR to understand that
6th is GameCube/Xbox/PS2. 7th is 360/PS3.
But that was when shooters were getting worse the fastest. It’s when we started getting chest-high walls everywhere, regenerating health, auto aim, and a general slow down of the action.
I mean, a lot of my favorites were slower than Quake for sure. Faster isn’t automatically better. Regenerating health was preferable to health packs, but we also had the likes of Doom 2016 to show that it didn’t have to just be one or the other. Games like Halo 2 and 3, Call of Duty 2, 4, and Modern Warfare 2 (the first time), the Timesplitters games, the 007 games of that era (Agent Under Fire with moon gravity and Q Claw is some of the most fun you’ll have with three friends on the same couch), Half-Life 2 and its episodes, Crysis, Left 4 Dead 1 and 2; and getting into third person shooters that were of a similar design philosophy, Metal Arms, Gears of War 1-3, and the much better Star Wars Battlefronts than the ones EA put out with basically the same titles.
If you haven’t played Talos Principle, it might be up your alley as a first-person puzzle game. And a sequel is planned for later this year!
I’m not sure if I have ever seen a game use the Mega Man X formula. I have definitely seen some follow the Mega Man formula, but I liked the X formula with the health upgrades, armor upgrades, energy tanks, etc. hidden in the levels. I think the market for this formula would be pretty small, because I think most would agree that the Metroidvania formula is a straight upgrade. But I kind of like the smaller, independent levels.
Stealth games. The last one for me was MGS5, I loved it even with its shaky story line. Hitman is really nice but it feels more like a puzzle game if that makes sense.
I concur. Hitman can be a somewhat true stealth game but the design steers you away from “free form” stealth with its mission stories. I like the idea but the puzzles are too small, few short steps to the goal.
I hope for Metal Gear Delta to succeed, not only because I have a soft spot for MGS3 but also to revive the genre.
Have you played Mike Bithell’s Volume?
No I did not, thanks I’ll look into it!
Sim games. Not THE sims but like SimTower, SimAnt, etc. There’s been some attempts over the years but everyones missed the mark.
The tribes series, or z-axis games, where you are able to move up and down as well as the traditional x-y movement you see in virtually all games. Usually set as shooters, they are fast paced movement games that have a huge skill curve which is why they aren’t made that often. Super fun when you get the hang of it though
Example
https://youtu.be/xOK3n8j7czAMid-air 2 Is inching towards release.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/1231210/Midair_2/
I’ve got alpha access and can assure you it does a great job of bringing the good ol’ days of Tribes 2 back. Though there is a ways to go.
Arcade / over the top racing games like Motorstorm and Split Second.
Wreck Fest is close but needs more crazy scenery or setpieces.
I absolutely loved Split Second!
Split/Second was such a great game.
Recently picked up ‘arf of rally’. It somewhat scratches that itch with it’s handling but eh…
There’s just the itch that hasn’t been scratched properly since Midnight Club 3 and Midnight Club Los Angeles.
Good RTSes. Last great one I played was Company of Heroes.
My favorite is still command and conquer generals lol. Not the best in the series but I loved it. Still play it every once in awhile.
Generals with Zero Hour is fantastic, and I actually think it’s the best in the series. While I think Company of Heroes is better, it’s still a very good game.
I’ve been playing Beyond All Reason, a free RTS that’s like Supreme Commander or Total Annihilation. The game handles 8v8 team games quite well, I’ve never played on such large teams in a RTS game, it’s fun.
I’ll go check that out, but I recall I wasn’t fond of the economy generation in Supreme Commander.
The economy is similar, but it’s a little easier than sup com. Energy to metal converters are cheap and if you balance them right you wont waste metal or energy.
Thanks, if it’s a little easier it might just be enough.
Used to play a lot of RTS, both single and multiplayer. The last one I bought was the new AoE game. It did scratch a bit of the itch, but on the whole was a letdown. Before that it was Iron Harvest, which was visually pleasing but clunky. I am still looking for an RTS I can really get lost in.
Any recommendations?
@Pantoffel supreme commander is my all time favorite and “beyond all reason” is a free game, developed by the community that shares some elements.
Thanks I’ll give it a try!
