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.
Simulation games, like the ones Maxis used to make (other than SimCity). SimEarth, SimAnt, SimTower, etc. Those were educational and fun.
I also once played a simulation game that realistically simulated running a shipping business where you shipped things by boat, sailing your fleet from port to port, dropping off your cargo and loading new cargo, giving the occasional bribe, etc. while avoiding bankruptcy. I think it was called “Port of Call.” It was made a long time ago, and I haven’t played anything quite like it since then.
Oooh, reminds me of SimFarm 😃
SimFarm was surprisingly fun.
Not exactly educational, but Sid Meier Pirates was also a lot of fun.
Yes, I totally agree with this. I would play these games so much growing up. Especially SimLife.
I like sim games where you feel like you’re experimenting with a scenario, not just trying to get the highest score or some win condition.
SimAnt was awesome
I still get that bass line from the bgm stuck in my head, all these years later.
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.
Tower Defense Games
Linear First Person Puzzle Games
We’re living in a golden age of tower defense games. Sanctum 2, elements td, dungeon of the endless/endless dungeon, rogue tower, dungeon defenders awakened, orcs must die 3, bug tdx, tiledeck td … Seriously there are so many. Even Path of Exile has a tower defense mode.
Party-based RPGs like Baldur’s Gate or Pillars of Eternity. I absolutely love this style of game, but it feels like there are precious few titles to choose from. Anyone know of any hidden gems?
Well, you’re in luck; they’re releasing Baldur’s Gate 3 in a few days ;P
Tyranny, Kingmaker, Wrath of the Righteous, Tower of Time. Also anything by Spiderweb Software – my favorite is Geneforge
Have you checked out Pathfinder Kingmaker and Pathfinder Wrath of the Righteous? Those are relatively new.
There a youtube channel and a steam curator called Mortismal Gaming who loves CRPGs. Their shtick is also completing games at 100% before popping a review, and they are churning out new material at an amazing pace. Check it out for some decent coverage on the genre.
As for a maybe hidden gem, Age of Decadence looks pretty good. I have not played it yet, but the genre seems to match, and the premise is solid.
Expedition Rome is well appreciated too, even if it leans more toward tactical battles.
It’s not hidden, but I thoroughly enjoyed divinity original sin II. If you don’t want turn based combat it might be worth checking out the Pathfinder games.
Solasta is a pretty faithful recreation of dungeons and dragons 5e, although the story/writing is not the best (may have improved in the later dlc, I’ve not gotten around to playing it yet). The combat is fun, though.
I have just one gripe with Solasta – it’s incredibly slow movement. You have to mod it.
Have you checked out Caves of Lore? It’s a great party based rpg with deep lore and created by a single developer. It reminds me of Jeff Vogel’s work a bit.
No, I’ve never heard of it. Thanks for the suggestion!
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.
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)
The Settlers games have not been Settlers games after the fourth one. Except of course the remake, but that also was a very long time ago.
I tried playing the third and fourth installment, but they couldn’t hold a candle to the second one imo.
Fourth? The last real Settlers was Settlers 2.
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!
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.
Have you played Mike Bithell’s Volume?
No I did not, thanks I’ll look into it!
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.
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.
I realize this is getting hyper-specific, but party-based dungeon crawlers that are true 3d and not grid-oriented. Really, the only example aside from Wizardry 8 (that I’m scared to try because it looks like way too much effort and investment for a not-great return) is the Might and Magic series circa Win95, and specifically 6, 7, and 8, all built off the same, almost pseudo-3D engine. I can’t put my finger on it, but there’s something very satisfying for me in that gameplay loop of clearing out dungeons via potshots and backpedaling, selling the loot to level and train your party, and moving on to the next one. The push and pull of skirting groups of enemies so they don’t take swipes at you when they get too close, the thrill of picking up fireball from the advanced magic shop and just nuking low-level mooks, the ecstasy of learning town portal and Lloyd’s beacon and never having to think about travel again.
I think part of the reason these games don’t really get made anymore is that they were always kind of a weird middle ground between first person Action-Adventure-RPGs and top down party-based TTRPG engines, and those genres are fully expressed today by a number of games.
Barony sounds somewhat similar to what you described, but it’s more rogue like and is singleplayer/ online coop
Kind of - the customization options run a little deeper in M&M. You could pick up 6, 7, and 8 for less than $30 on GOG. $10 at most for the pack that includes 1-6, and I’d say of those three, 6 offers the best experience.
I wish there were more stealth games being released, especially AAA.
Yeah I loved Blacklist, even the multiplayer was an interesting evolution of the asymmetrical style the splinter cell series is known for. Since then? 👻
Good RTSes. Last great one I played was Company of Heroes.
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.
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.
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!
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.
Arcade / over the top racing games like Motorstorm and Split Second.
Wreck Fest is close but needs more crazy scenery or setpieces.
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.
I absolutely loved Split Second!
