What recent video game do you have buyer remorse for?

Starfield. I love some Bethesda games, and I don't hate the game, it's just not worth the price. It would be way more tolerable at $40. I got about 40-45 hours into it, and I don't know if I'm ever going to complete it. I feel like I've seen everything the game offers and there doesn't seem to be anything new coming along in terms of mechanics or story.

I got 40hours in and it was tolerable with the ship building but questing was uninspired loading screens suck and the progression tree was a massive turn off. You'd think they'd take a few cues from fallout nv
- I'm not usually into base/ship building, but I'm glad it is there for those that are into it. I can't imagine how poorly the game would have been received without it though. Skill tree is bullshit. Can't modify weapons or armor because I'm not high enough level, even after 40 hours. I can't modify a damn scope? WTH?
- I mostly hated that the skill trees are still mostly % increases. Cyberpunk retooled their entire skill tree because of that.
  
  It's a type of gameplay progression that just isn't that fun - but Bethesda loves it.
- They took quite a few cues from NV if you compare it side by side with NV and Skyrim. There's a lot more Roleplaying in Starfield than Skyrim, for example, it's just extremely dull world-wise in Starfield.
Yeah, glad I didn't buy this. Thought it was hated on a bit too much though.

I enjoyed the combat more than most RPGs and some of the hand crafted environments were nice. Found the ship building quite fun too.
- Combat is fun, but not anything special. I feel like the quests aren't fun enough to bother dealing with all of the non-fun parts of the game, e.g. travel.
Same boat.

I don't exactly hate the game, but the planet-hopping has segmented it too much and exploring a thousand empty terrains each with 3-4 generic caves/camps grows old quick. I don't know if the main story would have picked up speed any time soon (I retrieved 3 or 4 of the thingies they collect), but I haven't launched the game for a few weeks now.
Same, dude.

Diablo IV. What a disappointment that turned out to be.

My wife and I were massive fans of D3, so buying D4 was a no-brainer. We liked the campaign, and we (begrudgingly) completed the first season. We didn't finish the second season, and only played about 2 hours of the third season. Unless they do something drastic in future seasons I don't see this becoming the hit for us that D3 was. They have time to make it better, but it will probably be shelved for a couple years for us.
That was my most recent regret of a buy.

For those of you who are enjoying Diablo 4, good on you. I sadly could not. There are too many things that I've been shown a better way on thanks to other arpgs that is rather spend time on than one which seems intent to have me spend significantly more time on for less. It felt awful to pick up entire inventories of loot and have absolutely none of it be worth while for my character. Literally hours of running from thing to thing to not hit a single upgrade.
- Which other ones would you recommend? I've played a few (PoE, which wasn't for me, Grim Dawn, which was more fun). I went back to D2 after getting bored with D4.
- You weren't stoked about the gloves that give you +2% critical strike damage against pirates on alternating Tuesdays with skills whose names contain three or more vowels either, huh?
80 f'ing bucks! The most I've ever paid for a videogame! To play this snorefest. must be half a year now and I'm still bummed...
Interesting.

My partner and I played a lot of Diablo 3 and for the winter break, I bit the bullet and bought D4, feeling a bit uneasy as many people online were disappointed.

The obligation to be always online, coupled with the slow servers did not help to ease the uneasy feeling, but after playing for a while, I must say that besides for that online crap, the game feels much more like a rpg than D3.

The world is much more open, and you don’t have to just follow the main quest as there are many side quests spread around.

I get that many people play for the online seasons and to perfect their setup, and I can’t speak for this experience, but if you approach the game as a casual loot action rpg with a big world to dicover, to me it is a much better game than D3.
- This was my experience, up until my stats turned into a series of interconnected boardgames. I got a bit lost in the sauce at that point and quit. Up until then I was having an okay time, though.
- The mechanics and bosses are an upgrade from 3, but the scaling ruins everything that made the game an RPG. You don't get more powerful when you level up because everything around you gets stronger.
  
  I mean did nobody with any power at that company realize that it's not satisfying for your spells to do less damage, or that your armor getting less effective every time you leveled up was a bad thing?
  
  /rant
Same. A friend and I were excited to play together like we did in D3, but we barely managed to finish the campaign. It's on the shelf for now unless/until we hear the team turned things around.
- I don't have a lot of hope now they're second-siblings in the Microsoft family.
I knew it'd be shit but I bought it anyways. Idk what is wrong with me. Why did I have to give them money

Baldurs Gate 3

There’s nothing wrong with the game, I just don’t find it fun to play. Somehow got 48 hours out of it, but never made it to the end of act one. The gameplay just wasn’t something I terribly enjoyed.

I don’t necessarily regret the purchase as supporting smaller, decent studios is a good plan, but it’s still a game I’m not going to get a lot of use out of

See. I need this kind of person to do game reviews. Not gushing. Not hating. Not analyzing from industry knowledge. Like a guy who says the game is “meh” and spends 15 minutes giving us the concise reasons that the game was not to his tastes.
- !lemmygamereviews when?
- BG3 fanboys will tell you all about its 96% positive rating, as if disliking the game makes you wrong. It has an audience and I'm sure they love it,but there's plenty of people who didn't like it and many more who skipped it entirely.
Right there with you. I had like 25 hours in the game and realized I just spent most of that time save scumming a single battle over and over. I tried another 15 hours and it felt like that's all I was doing. I felt I was under leveled, I rerolled a new character on the easiest difficulty but was still finding myself doing the same shit and battles weren't getting easier.

I'm sure there's a great game there, but I don't have the time for it.
- You summed up my experience perfectly, down to the OP build on the easiest difficulty. I just didn’t have that much fun with it

Diablo 4.

I played like 10 hours, then realized it was really fucking boring. It felt soulless. Uninteresting.

The infinitely scaling enemies was the dumbest fucking shit Ive encountered in a LONG ass time.

Im lv1 and a shipwrecked mugger can kill me

time warp 30 hours of gameplay

Im lv50, Im dripping in rare loot, I just kicked a greater demons balls through the roof of his mouth oh and a shipwrecked mugger can still kill me.
- The infinitely scaling enemies was the dumbest fucking shit Ive encountered in a LONG ass time.
  
  Infinitely scaling enemies is sort of the point of the genre. Wherever you go at max level you’ll still find enemies that can drop shit you might want (though of course eventually you don’t want much loot that drops from most enemies). Once you have good gear and a good build a single minor mob shouldn’t be able to take you out unless you’re AFK. Unless you’re in like, a high NM level dungeon.
  
  You’re never supposed to out-level stuff, basically, except certain boss fights. It’s just a constant dopamine drip. Pointless, sure, but so is plenty of stuff. Makes a great podcast companion, IMO.
Absolutely agree. Worst 70 euros I spent in quite some time.
I actually dozed off at my computer playing D4, something about the mindlessness of it just lulls me to sleep.
- Animal Crossing is my favorite sleepy time game, but Diablo gets me nodding off like it's downtown Kensington

Elden Ring.

Waited all year until it was on sale as I thought it might not be my cup of tea, tried not to let my prejudice get the better of me but felt it was such a drag I had to put it down.

It was recommended to me as I like Zelda but it couldn't be further from the things I like about it: innovation, fluid gameplay, freedom, puzzles, multiple ways to tackle enemies.

I don't think it's the difficulty as I play lots of roguelike and bullet hell games. My main gripe is the clunkiness of the combat to the point it's unfair. Like you don't really stand a chance through reactions alone, you have to learn the patterns and hitboxes of enemies so that you know in advance when to react.

Also I kept hearing how good the graphics are but I think they're kinda average although the actual art style is quite nice.

Any suggestions on how I might enjoy it would be much appreciated as I haven't got very far.

Whoever thought you might like Elden Ring because you like Zelda is not a true friend. There's really not much similar with the gameplay loop.

You're right that the gameplay is more about learning and recognizing patterns of enemies and adjusting to them so if that doesn't appeal to you you're probably not going to like it. With that being said though, your first soulslike is always the hardest and if you stick with it they are very rewarding to play once you know what to expect.
- Cheers, probably just not for me then.
After I died for the 327th time within the first few hours of playing, I ditched it. Haven't been back since. The gameplay is really cumbersome, blocking and dodging are hit or miss, and I've been jumping and rolling around all day like some unmedicated ADHD kid on speed trying to get one hit in that causes minimal damage, while every enemy counterattack goes near critical.

I'm not against a step learning curve or anything, but Elden Ring was a major frustration.
- I mean this in a constructive way: you're literally playing it wrong. Elden Ring is a Souls game, which (in terms of gameplay) is the complete opposite of a hack & slash button masher. There's almost no animation cancelling, so once you press a button, you're committed to the outcome and have to wait for it to finish. So if you miss a heavy swing with a giant 25 kg greataxe, you'll be wide open for the enemies to smash you. The game requires self-control to make every input matter.
  
  Once you acclimate though, I think the combat feels very good. It's responsive (once you accept the fact that you can't cancel actions), flexible, and the hitboxes are way more accurate than most games.
  
  But don't think you have to master it all at once. The enemies are tough, but you don't have to fight fair. Sneak and backstab if you can, soften them up with arrows or ranged spells, debuff them with throwables, summon some spirit ash helpers, use the environment to land attacks from the high ground, stack up poison and bleed effects, use a shield to block-counter, use your weapon abilities to help break enemy poise, etc etc. You can create entire builds around any of these but of course there's power in combinations.
Souls games are honestly just pretty rhythm games. The queues are obscured and the timing can be quite silly, but it’s the same core gameplay.
clunkiness of the combat to the point it's unfair. Like you don't really stand a chance through reactions alone, you have to learn the patterns and hitboxes of enemies so that you know in advance when to react.

Nice to see it hasn't changed since Dark Souls. Thought I might have been missing out.
I think it sounds to me like it just isn't your thing. What you're describing as a frustration is what I love about Elden Ring, you have to figure out every enemy and learn their patterns in order to succeed so every enemy is like it's own little puzzle to solve. There's no secret to avoid that part of the game besides maybe building INT and just avoiding fights which does not sound fun tbh
- This. I think people who enjoy it see every enemy as a puzzle. Even developing your character is a bit of a puzzle, figuring out what stats suit the weapons you like and the play style you're aiming for. Conversely, Zelda is incredibly simple and boring to me. Most of the fights are boop boss on the head 3 times, or throw their own bombs back at them 3 times. The only Zelda I enjoyed was the first one.
Main point in enjoying soulslikes is the approach. Modern action RPGs are very fast paced, very direct in their approach "hit A - enemy dies - get dopamine".

To make it work, slow down. Treat every enemy as a real threat, not filler between bosses. Pretending they are all real players and not bots might help. Keep your distance, bait out several attacks, see how they behave, carefully close in and make your move. Don't get greedy on the offence and only attack when the enemy opens and then break the distance again.

Also as others mentioned, game makes you commit to any actions you take. When you attack the enemy, take responsibility of every button press. If you start mashing, the game punishes you fast and hard.

I don't have the best reaction speeds, but I was able to steamroll most of the bosses under 10 tries, so the game is definitely not the "die until you memorize the moveset" type. If you play patiently and carefully build up your character it is definitely possible to tackle most threats on first sight.

Edit: Also, if you're on PC I don't mind giving you a hand sometime and playing together a little
- Yeah think you're right, I like fast-paced games where I can enter flow state quicker and I never was one for grinding up a skill tree in order to progress unless the grinding itself is fun/fluid.
  
  I prefer actively attacking enemies with a bit of running away and dodging where required as opposed to patiently dodging waiting for an opening to attack.
  
  Thanks for the offer, I would have taken you up on that, unfortunately I have it on Xbox, not PC.
I'm a diehard FromSotware fan but even I was a little let down by it. I got a lot more enjoyment from co-op and PvP so I ended up finishing the actual game after 300+ hours lmao

I've beat all the other Souls games so dying hundreds of times didn't bother me... But for some reason I didn't feel compelled at all to actually progress in the game
Like you don't really stand a chance through reactions alone, you have to learn the patterns and hitboxes of enemies so that you know in advance when to react.

Yep, Elden Ring (and all soulslike games) are basically just guitar hero with a shitty interface. And way more grinding.

It's not actually challenging just memorization. Elden Ring is basically like speedrunners being able to play Mario with their eyes closed.
- Weirdly I like Guitar Hero, but think that's mainly down to enjoying the songs and playing with friends. Scraping through Cliffs of Dover on expert was enough Eden Ring for me lol.

Starfield was definitely one of my worst purchases in a long, long time. Full price for nothing.

I have the hope that it will be improved and expanded upon going forward, as well as the possibility of mods.

I get that most planets don't have to be interesting, but if the planet isn't going to be interesting, fucking just tell me that instead of putting a hundred "points of interest" on it. The fact that every planet has a bunch of random pirate bases on it and a dozen random caves with nothing in them is just ...ugh. If it only put markers on things that were actually interesting, that would be a huge step in the right direction.
Yikes. I got it through Game Pass and still wanted my money back
- I played it at a friend's, and I made them apologize.

Diablo 4. Feels like I don't even need to be there, just follow the green arrows.

It's not fun. It's filled with micro transactions and uses FOMO dark patterns to make you spend more. It costs $70. The devs are not fixing the problems with their changes. I literally feel stupid for buying it.
- I literally feel stupid for buying it.
  
  I feel this. Even after they pissed me off by taking away OW1 and replacing it with the FOMO garbage they're calling Overwatch """"2"""", I bought it anyways because I love Diablo. I'm such a fucking idiot. This is why they keep making shit games.
I maxed a couple of characters and I just couldn’t keep playing. I put thousands of hours into D3, but D4 was just bad.

I bought Lethal Company because it looked like fun. Then realized I don't have enough friends to play it with.

Bought it as well, but have friends.... it's super shallow. We played it maybe 4 hours, basically past the point I can't refund it.
- Eh, it's fun enough for the price, we got a few fun evenings out of it
Same. I'll play with you 😄

Palworld

I was expecting factorio but with union busting knock-off Pokemon . I got a really generic open-world survival craft with normal knock-off Pokemon.

Yeah it is over-hyped. I enjoy it, but you do have to keep in mind that it is early access. Hopefully it will continue to get better.
- Yeah I've been telling people I think it's fun, but if they haven't jumped on by now due to hype, they might want to wait until the game is less buggy and more complete. I imagine it's gonna stay in early access for a long time.
- Given how they've left their last two games... probably not.
Same here.

When starting out without having seen all that much of the game beforehand, I saw a great potential for just that expectation you and I shared. The game keeps you jumping from one task to another, managing your initially growing base(s) to produce new necessities, catch new/more pals, explore the map and ...well, that's basically it, so far.

The gameplay loop so far is pretty barebones and the countless bugs, especially regarding basebuilding and -managing, grew all the more frustrating as I was forced to realize that there simply is no goal or endgame besides catching all the pals, exploring the whole empty map and maybe spend countless hours optimizing it all by breeding the best attributes in your pals, i.e. holding F and waiting.

A lot of that is hopefully simply a symptom of it being early-access though, I expect to have a better time in a few months when the hype died down and the game has matured a bit more.
Modding hopefully will be a feature in the future. I’d love to have factorio with Pokémon slaves
I tried it out bc it was so popular but it felt sooooooo boring to play.
I think it's a fun game. But it certainly is overhyped as fuck.
I luckily refunded it lol

Temtem.

Had the potential to be the RPG Pokemon could be if it just entered this generation's technical level. Instead, it became a shitty grindy money-grab that has been killed by the devs.

I thought about getting it for switch so I could finally check it out only to realize it was online only.
- Well, yeah. It's an MMO lol
Awww. Well that's a dissapointment. About a year ago I bought it, twice actually so me and my GF could Co OP it. And got to the end of the then level cap and got bored grinding for shinies.

Was vaguely thinking about picking it back up... :/

I don't really have any recent ones, but I think my most recent one would be Doom Eternal. That's not saying that it's a bad game, I can understand why people like it. I'm just not a fan of how it plays compared to the original Dooms or even Doom 2016. My biggest complaint is really about how little ammo you can carry for each weapon. I don't like being forced to switch weapons all the time or else glory kill every other enemy. I wasn't a fan of glory kills in Doom 2016 because I felt like they interrupted the pacing in an otherwise fast-paced game, but I put up with them because you could ignore them if you wanted to. You can't really ignore them (or the chainsaw kills) in Doom Eternal though, otherwise you'll find yourself regularly running low on ammo. I guess at least the chainsaw has more utility in Doom Eternal than it did in the original games (on harder difficulties it's hard to justify the chainsaw on anything except low-tier enemies), but I never finished the game because of the ammo restrictions.

Another game I have regrets about is The Sims 4. I knew I was getting into a dlc-pit but it didn't bother me too much because I tend to subscribe to the "Paradox Method" - buy what you like, pirate the rest - when it comes to games with lots of DLC. Additionally, when I pick up a game and really enjoy it, I don't have problems dropping money on dlc because I tend to play it for hundreds or even thousands of hours. However what I wasn't expecting was that I'd end up pirating the entire game anyway because updates almost always break mods and there's no way to disable updates (Origin let you do it, but neither steam nor the new EA games app lets you disable updates). So what was the point of buying anything if I was going to have to pirate the game to stop updates from randomly breaking shit?

Edit: some games I don't have buyer's remorse for are Cruelty Squad, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, and Factorio. Those could easily be 2x the price and still be worth it imo.

I loved Doom 2016. Eternal was such a letdown for me. Completely different games.
- For me it was how seriously Eternal took itself. Doom 2016 had a story but Doom guy didn't care and was just there to kill demons. It was a running joke how little he gave a shit. Then suddenly in Eternal he can talk, was some kind of Chosen one and there's this grandiose story with Heaven etc and it's all way too up itself. I just want to shoot Demons. That's it. Don't try and make it more than it needs to be.
My biggest complaint is really about how little ammo you can carry for each weapon. I don't like being forced to switch weapons all the time or else glory kill every other enemy.

I do like what they were going for but I totally agree, I don't want to constantly feel like I'm suffocating (low/out of ammo) when I'm trying to tear through nightmare-level hoards of enemies. Just let me rip and tear!!

I'm a hardcore Quake and Half-Life player so constantly switching weapons and using my full arsenal at once comes naturally to me, but I was still struggling the whole way through the game.

Humble bundle had a bundle of all the Mega Man games for 20 bucks.

I instantly regretted it once I loaded it up and I thought to myself, I could've just got roms for these and a better emulator than the one it came with... The emulator doesn't even let you fuckin adjust the audio levels.

Something is just fucking wrong with the Mega Man collections. I can't quite put my finger on it, but they just don't feel right.

Starfield. I want to like it - and there are some things I really do like about it - but it’s just not a very good game. The menus and inventory management is atrocious, which is unforgivable when you have to spend so much time on those screens. The enemies are bullet sponges. It’s not fun dumping a magazine into a guy, reloading and doing it again while the guy just walks right into it like you’re spraying him with a garden hose. I’m ok with there not being a map on remote planets, but it makes no sense that there wouldn’t be one in a city. It’s the kind of stuff you’d overlook if it was an indie early access game, but it doesn’t fly when it’s a $70 game from a major studio. I can’t imagine what they were doing all those years the game was in development because it’s not reflected in the product.

Maybe everyone responsible for the Elder Scrolls and Fall Out games have all retired or been fired and now their devs are people whose main strengths were being great at leet code.

Diablo 4, hands down. My best friend and I have been playing co-op games together for many years, and we were convinced that D4 would be the next 200+ hour co-op event of the year. So I bought myself the 100 dollar collectors edition and he, the same one since his birthday was near launch.

Yep, after 2 weeks we both admitted it just wasn't a good game, and neither of us wanted to play anymore. What a massive disappointment.

Could not possibly agree more. Bought for $90CAD, put in like 20 hours. Didn't enjoy it but kept pressing on hoping it would improve. My morale broke after I finished the sandy place in the west, and then stopped playing.

That's the nail in the coffin for Blizzard games for me.
Try last epoch. Got it last week, it's really scratching that Diablo itch without being as complex as path of exile. It's not as visually polished as Diablo and the story is average at best, but the builds are more interesting, a loooooot more qol stuff and it plays just as well. I have very high hopes for the future of this game.
- Full launch is next week too.
Idk if you've played since launch, but they've added some semblance of an end game and some QoL since then as well.

It's still not a full game imo, but I have a week or so of fun per season. Its definitely been a disappointment overall though.
- One thing I absolutely hated was the Open World, it was non-stop jammed packed full of monsters, just spawning non-stop. And they are always around your level, so you never feel like you're progressing in power. It was just such a shitty way to handle the world, you can never clear out an area, never go back to an earlier area and flex your new power. Also, monsters spawning constantly was jarring, but the first time I saw a grizzly bear climb straight out of the ground, not a den, just the ground.... lazy bullshit.
  
  There are so many things that were just trash about that game, the stats on gear, it was impossible to figure out which pieces would be actual upgrades. The skill trees looked fun but feel so empty and hollow, ugh, I'm irritated all over again about that purchase.
  
  So unless you've corrected all of that stuff plus a ton more, I probably won't ever play it again.

Stray.

Don't get me wrong, it's a cute game, and I love the combination of cute and cyberpunk. But the game is really on rails, and the puzzles are just not super engaging. And it's really short, which makes sense, because it's on rails. I just wanted it to be more.

I was glad when it was done that's for sure. Like being on a tedious kiddie ride

Insurgency: Sandstorm. Because I've wasted 600+ hours on it and still going strong. I'm literally not getting anything from the game but I still have to play it. It's like what I assume being hooked on meth would be. And Steam doesn't even allow me in my moments of lucidity to remove the game permanently. Their "permanently remove game from my account" option can be rolled back with about 3 clicks from the support page. I feel like I need to throw away my whole Steam account that I've been accumulating since 200x just to get rid of that one game.

Then sometimes I see other players whose levels are double or triple my level. Which means they have to be playing 4-8 hours every single day. It's like having a bit of trouble with meth yourself and then wandering into a full-ass crackhouse.

Many other games have been a waste of money, but Insurgency is a huge waste of time and mental resources. Which is money.

Can't you ask support to remove the game if you don't like it anymore? I think so.
- I don't know how to reach human support via Steam. Do I need to contact the developer?

Firewatch was a recent purchase for me which I mildly regret.

As a walking simulator it's wholly dependent on the quality of its story, and the quality just isn't there. It starts strong but the ending is rushed and without a coherent resolution. It does so much work to set up multiple dramatic mysteries and then haphazardly solves half of them out of nowhere and forgets the rest in the final scramble to finish.

Nice graphics. Great voice acting. Neat concept. Needed more time to cook and left me feeling like I wasted my time getting invested in the story.

A recent release? Diablo 4 I guess. I don't really regret it since I knew what I was in for. I bought it to play with my best friend, and we had fun together until he got bored and frustrated. My hopes were high but my expectations were minimal and it still barely managed to meet them.

Yes, I couldn't agree more. The first half of Firewatch is great, until you realize they've run out of budget and they're wrapping up the story already
Oh, I played that recently, too. I didn't have any high expectations for Firewatch, but liked the idea that it's a "true story" sent in by a player.

But the ending, well... it was like an "but then nothing happened" ending where the story teller artificially made up some wild climax in the mindset of the "satanic panic" hysteria that gripped the late 80s/90s. Still, if I see it as an indie game, it's okay.
- It sucks because there's a lot about the ending (I'll be as spoiler free as possible) but the ending basically being "And then nothing happened" is kind of the point. It's meant to be bittersweet, because the story is about escapism but that ultimately you have to come back to reality eventually. The ending does the big lead up of oh man there's a big fantasy and heres the happy ever after. but throughout the whole game it repeats over and over that things aren't as magic and wild as you want it to be, that sometimes there's a simple, boring, and sometimes sad explanation, and at the end of the day reality is the only thing that stays.
  
  Firewatch is definitely more of a "reflecting philosophy" game than a straight up "gamer story" game.
- Firewatch has been on the periphery of my attention for a while. I've heard generally good things about it, but it didn't actually pique my interest until Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe
  
  spoiler
  
  swapped it in to replace Minecraft in the alternate games ending.
  
  I figured if it was good enough for the Stanley Parable devs to feel it was worth referencing, it must have been an indie gem that I was sleeping on. I was wrong.
Yeah, I'm with you. I still enjoyed it overall, so no remorse of buying and playing it. But the ending did feel like a mild letdown.
I feel like I got all I could get out of it by watching some videos on Firewatch.

Command Modern Operations.

I love EVE for being spreadsheets in space. I love Masters of Orion. I loved Harpoon. I thought I knew a lot about military hardware (certainly more than my friends, and enough to be annoying at parties). I have a PhD, so I'd like to think I'm pretty smart...

But this game broke me. The 450page manual destroyed me. I have 120 hours in this game, 3 whole working weeks and at least as twice as much reading guides and watching letsplays, and I understand absolutely fuck all about it. I feel like retard every time I start it and didn't take into account some insanely niche details about missile turning rates or how I should just know the radar crosssection of an F15 increases threefold when it climbs and turns right.

This game has won. I give up.

Latest one for me is Disco Elysium. Didn’t really like its form of story telling. Played it for about 6-8 hours without feeling that the plot had made any meaningful progression.

The trailer was also misleading, selling it more as some form of detective thriller. Most of the dialogue is about stuff unrelated to the ongoing investigation.

I also didn’t like how some actions could randomly kill you. Oh, got a bad dice roll? Too bad, you must reread the dialogue of the past few minutes again. In the end I actively saved the game over and over again to avoid losing any progress.

I absolutely love DE but I agree the trailer is a bit misleading and dialogue isn't typically about the case. That said some of the best writing I have seen in a game full stop.

I also died immediately though on my first attempted "playthrough". Damn you tie....

The last game I had buyer's remorse for was Mass Effect Andromeda. It just didn't feel like a Mass Effect game.

Andromeda felt like a new Star Trek series to me. At first, it’s all weird but they’re saying familiar things. As time goes on, I grew to accept it for what it was and had a good time. But it absolutely wasn’t no goddamn Shepard shooter.

I love them both like they’re separate children of mine.
I tried to get into it after completing the OG trilogy again but I just couldn’t. It looked a little familiar but just felt too different.

I might give it another go, see if it’ll work better standing on its own.

Punch me, but: "Doom Eternal."

I thought it was a guaranteed hit, but it turned out to be a really bad arena shooter where you make colorful resources shoot out of enemies and are forced to run into the middle of enemy groups, exposing yourself to attacks from all sides that don't count because you're repeating 5 kill QTEs ad nauseam - the only tactic the game allows.

Doom was great. Doom Eternal took the most obvious elements of the first and turned them up to 11 and threw out all the pacing, atmosphere, and subtle touches that made the first one work.
Doom Eternal sucks ass, I'm so glad I tried it on game pass instead of buying the damn thing.

Starfield.

I sailed the seas on this one. Maybe when it's got all its DLCs and is on sale for $30.
- The DLC's aren't going to fix the problems with that game. But in true Bethesda fashion, mods might.

Diablo 4

This one might controversial, but Baldur’s Gate 3 for ps5.

I had plenty of technical issues, like my Karlach questline being glitched out because of some of mission, which was the worst since she was my main companion. I also had to start over earlier as well when I didn’t know that I would get locked out of quests for simply going to a the next area, I didn’t know that was “act 2”.
I finished divinity os 2 in august and I didn’t really find this game all different other than the crazy production value jump. Which I don’t want to underplay, it’s much much better and ver very good for a crpg.
the community is very circlejerk-y, when I mentioned in one of the threads about being locked out from doing other act 1 quests because I jumped to act 2 accidentally, they just said that it’s a “skill issue”. Also, the big reason I bought this game was because I kept hearing “I don’t usually like crpgs, but this game is a must play” so I was a victim of hype, that’s on me.

Edit: to add, I rarely ever buy new games. I just buy my Monster Hunter, some Nintendo games and From Software games.

Also BG3 for me. I didn't experience any bugs, I just realized the combat is absolutely not my thing. And I dislike the combat to the point of avoiding the game, which makes me sad because I really like everything except the combat a lot.
- I'm in the same boat, I find the combat both boring and frustrating, the worst possible combination. It's absolutely loaded with RNG. People said this was the crpg for people who don't like crpgs, but I can say that is not the case.
It's pretty good for telling you things will be locked off, but very bad at telling you what will be locked off. I nearly didn't go to the creche at all, because the warnings made me think that was Act 2 through that doorway.

Co-op was an absolute bug-fest. Performance was appalling on PS5, crashes all over the place, and worse, players are likely to miss out on any real links with companions because of how reputation is dished out. It's an interesting mode to have, but it's objectively a worse experience than single player.

And yet despite all that, it's still probably the best game of last year. And last year had a lot of good games.
- I learned my lesson. I’m used to some crpg and knowing that I would get locked out of quests if I do certain things, but it makes sense contextually. Here I just didn’t get why Halsin would be dead, but later I learned about “time-sensitive” quests and just to be safe I started doing everything before leaving the acts.
Same. No bugs, but it just didn't live up to the hype for me. I dropped it just after starting chapter 2.
- I got bored, honestly. The combat was a slog and I hated save-scumming to overcome poor design decisions that made gameplay unnecessarily complicated. I just wanted Baldur's Gate back, instead I got DOS with a D&D wrapper. And I didn't like DOS at all.
- I think that's where I stopped, I might play more but I doubt it. I got to the point everything felt so muddled, I'm never really sure what's going on because it's hard to follow stories when they're out of order and chunks missing plus so many side things the add to the confusion - not to mention all the random things in my inventory or boxes that I might need at some point maybe...
  
  Next time I open it I'd have to sort my inventory and everything which is probably an hours work before I even get to finding the next thing to do...
I've played through a few times. Before you leave Act I, there is an explicit warning that doing so will close out story-based quests that are incomplete. Having said that, it only closes out the main story quests for the most part; I've gone back to do side quests frequently. Act I doesn't truly lock until you've unlocked the end of Act II.

That seems consistent with actual tabletop D&D; ignoring a time sensitive quest may net negative results.

Squid 44, I bought it before the name change and easy anti cheat. I now can't play on Linux 😕 not a recent purchase but recently went to try it out

I kind of regret buying ARK: Survival Evolved. I got super into it, and wanted to do all of the stuff in order -- ended up doing The Island for like 6-7 months single player on regular rates, then they came out with ARK: Survival Ascended...and of course it's so much better than the original I had to grab it - but because I spent so much time on A:SE, I fucking hate The Island and cannot wait for ANY...FUCKING...OTHER....MAP....to be released.

They're supposed to be releasing The Center, and Scorched Earth maps soon - but soon is not soon enough.

I don't know how you put up with that game studio... Ark Survival Evolved had so many problems they never fixed and Survival Ascended is just "buy the game again, we promise we'll fix it"

If it's fun for you, I guess more power to you though. It's just so hard for me to even touch the Ark games at this point.
- It's mostly because I get into a single game at a time, and A:SE/A:SA are complex as fuck. There's a million tiny little tricks, there's a ton of knowledge that you've gotta learn, and I have a homelab -- so running your own server and being able to tweak game values to something that makes sense for 1, or 2, or 10 people to have the most amount of fun is something I enjoy. Part of it is the game, part of it is the server administration.
  
  Currently I'm running a community A:SA server for a couple of twitch streamers that stream ARK almost exclusively. Problem is, we're doing a playthrough of maps - and I've essentially been stuck on The Island for the past 2 1/2 years it feels like...
  
  While waiting on clustering to be enabled and a new map though - I've picked up and finished Palworld, Enshrouded. Prior to A:SE - I was no-lifing Warframe, and I ended up getting to Legendary 2 rank without spending a dime. Basically completed the whole ass game. Took a year and a half. Amazingly well made for a F2P. I spent like $300 on cosmetics after finishing it. Dunno -- I just like grindy games. A:SE had a bunch of cool mechanics for breeding and dealing with getting the right colorations, I even played some total-conversion mods like primal fear, supreme, and omega for a while. But I really wish I had just gotten into ASA only.
- Despite the very glaring flaws the game itself was really fun for myself and some friends. We had hundreds of hours in it and this was closer to when it came out when it was an even hotter mess than it is now lol. I dunno. The wonkyness was just kind of part of the experience. It's hard to explain but I don't regret that one at all

Palworld, I played an hour or two and thought it was fun at the time. But just haven't gone back, leveling felt like a chore instead of a grind

felt like a chore instead of a grind

Those terms are synonymous... 🤨
- When grinding feels like a chores then you know how grindy it is.
- Having sex is a grind, but it's only a chore for the ones that don't enjoy it.
  So not really synonymous.
- I think the distinction is that chores feel like you have to do it and hate it. A grind is inevitable in all games. But you are excited to do it for the outcome.
I pumped up all the rates and soared through it. Finished it, and have no reason to look back. Did the same with Enshrouded shortly after as well. I don't regret buying it, it was fun - but it's definitely a shallow game gatekept by a grind.
Palworld is best experienced in multiplayer imo. Single player is boring, but when you’ve got friends around it becomes a social event and it’s more fun to work through a lot of things and go adventuring together

Oxygen Not Included. I play a lot of Factorio so I thought I would like it, but it turned out to be a load of micromanagement. I can see ways to automate certain things but it's just so clunky. The thing that made me quit was after ages I discovered why my guys were complaining about burst ear drums - the CO2 scrubbing algae actually produce additional oxygen and so they were raining the atmosphereric pressure to ridiculous levels. But you need that many to prevent the CO2 levels getting too high. And yeah, I was already spending 90% of my time micromanaging and only 10% progressing before I discovered this and it was the final straw.

I played for ten hours over two different bases because I really wanted to give it a fair shake, so I couldn't even get my money back just as the cherry on top

I liked ONI but now when I try to get into it there’s just sooo much going on with little introduction to the mechanics.

I think the game would benefit from some on ramp for such things.

That being said it is in the vein of Klei games like don’t starve. Everything that can kill you has a use, the trick and the fun is figuring out how to turn the negatives into positives.
Factorio and ONI are nothing alike. One is a base builder where the goal is to automate everything. The other is a colony management game where the whole point is micromanagement.

If you want a factorio type game play satisfactory.

ONI is for those who like games like Rim world or dwarf fortress.
- Yep, I've learned that now..

"Mario is Missing" for the SNES.

I remember opening the Sears catalog and seeing what must be the sequel to Super Mario World. I shovelled driveways and busted open my piggy bank - it was a full price Nintendo game and I had to have it.

I started my subscription to Nintendo Power after that...

Oh I feel your pain.

I was in a video rental store, saw "Mario is Missing", and like you assumed it was a sequel to "Super Mario World".

Got home to play it and was just flabbergasted. I don't think I played for more than an hour before complaining to my parents. Luckily they're nice people and they had more errands to run that day. So back out we go, back to the video store we end up, time for me to pick a new game to rent.

Oh, "Mario's Time Machine", now that's a Mario sequel guaranteed to be fun.

Mario and I were not on good terms for a long while after that.

(For those not in the know, "Mario is Missing" in an educational Mario game about geography, think Carmen Sandeigo but not fun. "Mario's Time Machine" is basically the same game, but time.)
My god that game was terrible.

Dwarf fortress. It makes me want to forgo sleep in favor of weed lol

Diablo 4. No doubt Diablo 4. Guess I never hated something as much as I hate buying Diablo 4

D4, Starfield, Cities Skylines 2, and Mortal Combat 1. D4 and Starfield are self explanatory. CS2 is my biggest disappointment in years. Paradox killed whatever good will it had left by forcing the demise of CO. Under no circumstances should CS2 released this year. There's no mods. It doesn't function in any meaningful way. It's a performance nightmare. CS1 danced on the grave of SimCity and committed all the same sins a decade later. Don't listen to anybody that says the game has potential. They're sitting on 2000+ assets they can't release because they can't import buildings into their own city building game post release. That's how bad it is. Cities Skylines 2 was dead on arrival and it took the community 4 months to realize it.

MC1 isn't worthy of the K. It's just a slog. I don't know how much they fixed it but that doesn't break the fact that cameos are a major turnoff. Or that it has the worse progression system of recent MK games. Or that it's sitting on potentially one of the biggest rosters MK ever had but culled itself in half by reserving half the characters for cameos. Tekken 8 and SF6 have lapped MK hard this generation. Hell even Strive and DBFZ have taken steps to stay more relevant than MK1.

And you know what the kicker is? I bought all these games at the same time. I've been playing the clip of Totalbicsuit singing we don't pre-order games a lot lately.

For CS2 I get the buyer's remorse, but it not having potential? Are you ok?

Paradox almost always follows the pattern of launching a meh game that eventually gets good after DLC and free updates. CS1 was similar in that regard, and I have no doubt that CS2 will follow that same path. Yes, zoning tiles are wack. Yes, there is content missing from CS1. Yes, the simulation needs work. Yes, there were bugs at launch and there are still bugs even if there are fewer. Why does that mean that the game will be completely dead in a year? After playing both games over the past few months, I genuinely had more fun with CS2 and its missing content than CS1 with all of its content. The only things I really miss from CS1 are the music packs, the scenarios, the more devastating natural disasters, and the overall financial difficulty.
- Have you been paying attention to the drama surrounding the game and behind the scenes at CO? I'm not gonna recap it in full but it paints a dire picture for the game's future. CO admits the game is in a broken state then flip flops on how they're gonna fix it. They've entered crisis PR mode and have gone through the rigamarole of blaming the fan base for being toxic, saying the simulation is working as intended, moving goal posts in their roadmap, to abandoning it all together, to nearly ceasing all communication with the community, to openly admitting that Paradox called them to keep up the weekly dev talks against their will. This is a panicked dev studio.
  
  In the actual game, we've figured out that almost none of the simulation is working as intended. It's so bad we're at the point where one of the code modders came out and shamed/corrected CO with actual math errors he found in the code on the CS2 forums. We know they're sitting on 2000+ assets and can't put them in the game because their own asset importer is somehow broken. Modding is months away and the longer it takes the more this game will exit the zeitgeist. People are already leaving in droves. Just check the Steam charts.
  
  Does this game have the potential to turn around. Yes. Do I trust Collosal Order to keep this ship from sinking. No, not anymore. Whatever good will they had, they burned through it in a matter of weeks with these last few Word of the Weeks. We've been around the block with botched game launches a lot recently. Especially this year. This is one of the rare ones where the fundamentals of the game are so broken it might not be salvageable. The lack of meaningful communication and action from CO has eroded all trust. The communication we have gotten from them has shot themselves in the foot more than quell any animosity stirring in the community. After only a handful of patches they've already dumped the road map and tied bug fixes to DLC. WHICH NOBODY SHOULD BUY after the way they've handled this game. I don't care how much potential the base game has. It all comes down to modding support. And if all signals from CO are we're struggling with our own code to the point where features that were days to weeks away are pushed back to almost a year, this game isn't gonna survive. This isn't just some half in the bag stripped down sequel that Paradox developed to be a DLC cow. This is a fundamentally broken game. By CO's own word this game is a mess. They shit on the grave of SimCity with CS1 only to tempt the fate of Maxis with CS2.

I got Super Mario Bros. Wonder day one and it made me realize I don't like Mario nearly as much as I thought I did. And I already knew I liked Mario less than most people. It kinda made me realize the only games in the series I truly loved were Super Mario World and Bowser's Fury. If you include the alternate character spinoffs you can add Yoshi's Island to the list.

It's definitely the best 2D Mario since NSMB DS, there's nothing wrong with it and it's the most creative 2D Mario since World...but it still fails to stick in my mind the way Kirby games, Sonic games, Mega Man games, and more do. It was fun but it didn't wow me and I thought it was too easy (am I crazy or are 2D Mario games easier than Kirby games?) I'm glad I played it but I wish I picked it up sometime in the upcoming period when the Switch is completely removed from being current but not old enough to be retro.

What I've noticed about myself is that I'd pick a Sonic game that's considered "decent" or "debatable" over a comparable Mario game that people consider a GOTY candidate easily. with very few exceptions. And while Wonder vs. Superstars is an exception, it's only because of how godawful Superstars' bosses are.

It was fun but it didn't wow me and I thought it was too easy

I totally agree. With the exception of BotW (except for the final fight...), I can't even remember the last time I bought a Nintendo game that actually challenged me. I guess kids these days are less willing to play games that challenge them.

If you want a good 2D platformer I highly recommend looking at Celeste or Pizza Tower. They're two very different games, but hands down the best platformers I've ever played in my life. (Very cheap, too). Celeste is the most mechanically interesting / challenging of the two. But every screen is a checkpoint, so when you die the penalty is losing like, 30 seconds max. It's a very chill yet challenging game.

And Pizza Tower has pretty typical mechanics (it's Wario Land but way more refined) but the art and sound design is incredible. It made me nostalgic for old cartoons like Ren & Stimpy and Courage the Cowardly Dog. The characters, sounds, and music are all so expressive I can't put it into words, you'll just have to look at the Steam page to see what I mean. It's also worth noting that there's no lives or health, so it's very chill. You're just playing for points like in old-school SMB. (Unfortunately it's not on Switch or any Nintendo products like Celeste)

Both games can be very easy or very difficult depending on what you want to achieve. The levels themselves aren't too crazy but they both have collectables and secrets that really ramp up the difficulty if you want to get them all. Celeste also has "B sides" for each chapter, which are bonus chapters where they crank the difficulty up to 11.
Oh, also, if you're into 3D platformers SM64 ROM hacks are more alive (and accessible) than ever. Serene Fusion in particular is very good. Dog Collab can be hit or miss with some levels, but the hits are really strong hits. They both have a wide range of easy to very difficult stars.

There's a ROM manager called Parallel Launcher that integrates with a site called romhacking.com, so you can literally click 1 button and have the whole hack set up for you (after PL is installed and you give it a SM64 ROM of course). No messing with different emulators or messing with compatibility settings, just one and done.

Recently purchased? Fallout 76. God, it could’ve been great.

Elden Ring. The game is just too obnoxiously hard. I don't mind difficulty, I finished Doom Eternal and all its DLC on nightmare. But Elden Ring seemingly makes very little effort to teach me its mechanics, whereas Doom Eternal's mechanics felt pretty intuitive after just a little bit of trial and error.

As far as FromSoft games go, I had a much better time with Sekrio. That game had a good tutorial, and that ghost dude who would help you practice the more difficult aspects of the combat.

Check out the Elden Ring Seamless Co-op Mod if you're interested in playing with a friend or 3. It's a faaaar better experience and was exactly what I wanted in the game to balance the challenge.
I feel like Elden Ring takes more of the Dark Souls aspects here. With that I mean that they just drop you in to explore and figure it out yourself. I understand your point though, it can feel ridiculous to go head first blindly in to a boss arena not knowing what to expect, but the satisfaction of figuring it out and beating it is something else.

Still though, this is not everyone's cup of tea. I enjoyed the game, but never finished it. And I don't think I ever will.
Fromsoft generally teaches you things by killing you with it. That's a style decision that I personally enjoy (usually....) but it's not for everyone. Then once you master the thing, they hit you with another new thing and kill you with it, so on and so forth until the end of the game.

Doom (and don't take this as a complaint, I loved the game), is a game that wants you to beat it. It gives you tools and information up front and generally speaking, presents you a path of least resistance that you can take for optimal slaying. The Doomslayer isn't intended to die, he is an engine of destruction. Elden Ring and by extension earlier Souls games, don't do that. Those games want you to die and learn from it. The Tarnished, the Chosen Undead, all of them, canonically in lore die over and over and over in pursuit of their goals, and you as the player are expected to act that out. It's a fundamentally different approach to gameplay style and intent. Elden Ring provides you the tools to succeed, but they aren't laid out in front of you. You'll have to explore and experiment and die a few times to understand what you're working with.

Sekiro in particular was a little bit of a departure from this with its popup explanations for tutorials, and that was taken into Elden Ring to get even as much explanation as we got in that game. It's still cryptic, more so than Sekiro I think, but cryptic is Fromsoft's style, for better or worse, and this is the refinement of that.

I do, genuinely, recommend the game. It takes some getting used to and has a learning curve, but if you understand the language the game is speaking to you it becomes a little less frustrating. I've learned to love that language from as far back as Dark Souls 1, but if you learn to love Elden Ring first it will translate well backward in time if you'd like to try the earlier games.
You're missing out bigly if you give up on Elden Ring. It's the best game of the century, so far.

If you can parry in Sekiro, then you should be able to dodge or block or parry in ER and win. If not, then go a different direction and level up or something. It's an open world with tons of options.
- You’re only missing out if you enjoy soulslikes. If you don’t, you’re just going to be miserable
- It’s the best game of the century, so far.
  
  I don't find hyperbole like this especially convincing.
- I love Elden Ring but I honestly don't think it lives up to the other soulslikes. Aside from Melania and Milaketh, it's not even a difficulty thing... I think the open world aspect just waters down all of its strengths.
  
  I ended up putting in 300+ hours before I beat the game because the PvP and co-op were way more fun for me than getting to the end.
- What's good about it? I've seen people stream it and it looks really boring, just repetitive and dingy.
- lol it's not even as good as any of the Dark Souls games. It's probably FromSoft's weakest entry in the last decade. And yes, I finished it solo all bosses...twice.

Recent? None right now, but I also rarely buy games nowadays.

If we’re able to go outside of recent times, I’m still pretty salty about buying fuckin RPG Maker 2 & 3 on the PS2 without having a way to connect my PS2 to the internet.

The last time I had video game buyer’s remorse was getting RAGE on launch day.

What a technically interesting, but utterly underwhelming game.

The enemy movement animations in that game were quite good from what I remember.
- The game had a lot of great tech and visuals behind it, but it had so many fatal flaws that just sunk the experience.

Everything AAA not on sale.

Jedi Survivor. It's not a bad game, I just suck at it. Can't get past the first boss on easy mode. Getting old is annoying. I struggle with a lot of PC games now.

I'm a dumbass who bought it on steam deck and can't get it to work, but I waited for the 55% off and was feeling cocky because I played the original on SD and have played other non deck supported games with no issues. Whoops haha
It might not just be a skill issue for that game. The PC version has serious performance issues from what I hear.

I just started it on PS5 and even then the combat has been pretty clunky. I beat Elden Ring where fights usually felt difficult but fair. So far Jedi Survivor just feels frustrating with ignored button inputs and animations that last too long.
- Thanks telling me. Maybe I won't retire just yet.
I just can't do that style of game. That and Gof of War, the puzzle based small open world games. They're too infuriating for me. I only get so many hours to play, I want to play the story - not spend 3 hours on a puzzle and then die 13 times with a boss.
- I really like God of War, but I'm shitty at it. I was able to get through the main storyline on easy, and I accomplished some of the side objectives. But there's no way in hell I'm fighting all of those Valkyrie. I managed two or three of them, then noped out.
- God of War is pretty notorious for telling you how to solve the puzzles before giving you enough time to do it yourself. Your companion will just blurt out the answer within 30 seconds of you entering a puzzle area.
  
  It was one of the more consistent complaints about the game, 2 especially.
I have the same problem with fallen order. Even on the lowest difficulty the combat feels horrible, which is likely a skill issue, but still isn’t terribly fun

Squad. Looking for a more serious FPS game other than the popular shooters like CoD or Battlefield. Got a rec for it, so why not. Went to buy it and it’s $50. Well, the reviews looked mostly ok, and so did the screenshots… so I bit.

Man, the game plays like it’s 10-15 years old. Slow, clunky and the graphics leave room for improvement. Very dated. I don’t think I’d mind this game for the $15-25 range, but not $50. I returned it. I think probably the second game ever I returned.

If by "more serious" you mean more mechanically complex than "point and click", I recommend trying arena shooters if you're willing to get your booty cheeks slapped into the dirt for a bit while learning to play. Quake Champions is free and has the best GFX, but it has hero shooter aspects that a lot of people don't like. Quake Live is a paid (but cheap) alternative with no bullshit. (And I'd recommend the original Quake if it weren't so dead...still might be fun with friends, though.)

Half-Life 1's multiplayer is my favorite and it recently got a 25th anniversary update, but tbh it's still a chaotic and broken mess lol. But if you're into that, I highly recommend it.

I would recommend Counter-Strike as a more straightforward yet still mechanically complex FPS, but they recently removed a LOT of content. Lots of game modes and maps are missing, but if you're in it for the competitive experience you might still like it.
- Speaking of Counter Strike I saw a line saying Arms Race was back but I haven't had time to reinstall and rejoice. I uninstalled specifically because it got removed so I'll be giving it another shot this week.

Mafia. The story is good, but you are basically watching a movie with driving and shooting in-between cut scenes. The player has zero choice or influence over the game.

Which one? If you mean the first one, then it's because it is basically a person telling the story, and you as a player is reenacting it. It's basically a movie you can somewhat play.

It's also old as fuck lol. Personally loved it, as a proud Czech.
- then it’s because it is basically a person telling the story, and you as a player is reenacting it.
  
  So is 2, isn't it?
- I was specially referring to "the definitive edition", which is a remake of the first game which was released in 2020.

Warhammer 40k: Mechanicus

I thought it was gonna be like an XCom or Divinity Original Sin kinda combat game.

Maybe it is? I don’t think so, but the UI and controls are so bad that I never really figured out how to play, and there’s no tutorial, so I can’t say for sure what kind of game it actually is.

All I figured out in my 2ish hours is that it’s not a game for me.

If you're looking for XCOM 40k, check out Warhammer 40,000: Chaos Gate - Daemonhunters. It unabashedly mimics XCOM and throws in the spaceship management from Battletech. I would say it's not quite as good as XCOM 2, but it's still pretty good. Bonus points if you're into 40k.
- Thanks, I’ll check that one out!
  
  Yeah I’m a little curious about the Warhammer 40k world, but not interested in getting into another tabletop game, so I figured a video game might be fun
- I have both and chaos gate is def the better of the two but Mechanicus did grow on me the second time I picked it up. Some weird decisions like no cover struck me as odd
The trailers looked sick

Idk if this counts as recent but breath of the wild. Idk the last time I spent $60 on a game, let alone the $100 I spent on botw + DLC, because "how can literally everyone be wrong about this game".

The combat was fun for a decent amount of time but at a certain point I asked myself "wtf am I doing". I didn't care about the story because it was awful and the voice acting was embarrassing. Exploring the world felt incredibly shallow, with the most exciting thing to randomly run into being recycled mini bosses that rewarded me with weapons that I didn't need. Any challenge the combat or exploration presented could be bypassed by grinding for potions.

By far the most bafflingly over hyped game I've ever played.

Most disappointing Zelda I’ve ever played. Sadly this is the formula going forward for Zelda so the new ones are gonna be a hell no from me.
- I loved the puzzle dungeons of the previous games. The shrines feel like just puzzles, with no real dungeon.

Hogwarts Legacy on Switch. I should have known better, but my local Walmart had it on sale for $29.99 a few weeks ago and I bought on impulse after reading a few posts about how it's gotten better after updates. I've had glitches galore. Mad pop-in, falling through geometry, crashes, and two save game corruptions, all in the most up-to-date version available. If this is better, I can't imagine how broken it was at launch. I feel like I got $5 of content out of this. If the glitches were at least amusing, I might be ok with it, but the save corruption is just unacceptable.

Not just the games, but the whole of the PSVR2.

I really liked the Horizon games, so I bit thinking it’d be more like the others but in VR.

Gameplay is much different. It looks cool, but if the gameplay is balls it doesn’t matter how good it looks.

All the other games I got make me sick to my stomach. VR is a niche and an acquired taste.

My gf got it for me for Christmas and it hurts my soul to have only used it a couple times since, but there's so few games and I can't wear it for more that 30 minutes without my face sweating, shoulders aching and the screen is so small, where is the full field of view wtf is the point of a tiny screen strapped to your face?

Red Dead Redemption 2 only because I bought it for full price a month ago.

Don't. Rdr2 is one of the few games I honestly felt like they deserved more for. So much detail, so well done. Of course get a deal where you can, but don't worry about paying full price.
- Oh it's an amazing game it just never goes on a real sale. The game made me cry during the entire "final" mission. Absolutely worth every cent.

Ready or not Gameplay is pretty fun with the homies But for a $40USD game some maps are powerpoint slide shows on high in hardware 20-30fps on the house map.

For refrence Pc specs I5-10400 6700xt 32gb of ddr4 Game makes if feel like im playing on a toaster oven

Back 4 blood. They added so much nonsense to it, I just want to slash my way through waves of zombies with fun weapons, not to manage a card deck and play in a very specific way to be able to advance in the campaign.

Fun ways to get even more out of a game are great. But it's a fine line between just making it complicated and difficult to enjoy.

Enshrouded. I'm on a 5600X and a 6800XT and no matter the settings or reported FPS I feel like I'm running on 30-40fps. Also for some reason the distant LODs look like garbage, nothing like the gameplay I've seen in review videos.

Devs confirmed it was a bug with the camera but they did not know what caused it. Engine is entirely in-house so hopefully they fix it soon.

The only thing I managed to care about so far was building a nice cave home with a huge great hall and ruining the scenery by building a giant Peter Griffin pixel art outside.

None. I agonise over every purchase for weeks.
Update on this, devs have "kinda" found a fix but need to do large scale testing. They have said that they will release a separate beta branch on steam to opt-in to if you want to try the fixed fps issues.

Monster Hunter.

Start the game with 2 hours of unskippable tutorials, endless dialogue and the explanation of a million game systems that should not come into play until later.

Then you're set out into the wilderness to track a monster, and all you do is pick up mucus... Eventually found the monster and hit it a bunch, then it ran away... and I chased it around for 10 more minutes.

Said what the fuck is this, and just uninstalled and never looked back.

Monhun has infamously bad onboarding...probably the worst this side of Dwarf Fortress. Fantastic series once you get into it, though. The scary thing is...the new games are way better about it than they used to be.
- I played 100 hours of World and I honestly didn't enjoy a minute of it. I have no idea what people like about the series, and I especially dislike the comparisons to Dark Souls. It's nothing like souls.
Sounds like MH World. Other MH games had much less upfront material but people always complained about the lack of tutorials and guidance, hence World's approach.

cyberpunk for obvious reasons. they have improved it but its still nowhere near what they said it would be in the game. not that recent but im still salty about this one.

I love cyberpunk, but it’s not the game that was advertised. With modding and phantom liberty I’ve done ~4 full playthroughs of the game and enjoyed every one of them though. So if you haven’t modded the heck out of it, it might be worth trying.
I'm not mad about Cyberpunk but I did buy it on sale. It's pretty decent overall now.

For my response to OP's question, I regret buying Overwatch and Destiny 2. But those aren't very recent
- oof overwatch hurts.
  
  i bought it not long before they released overwatch 2, and the community really makes me feel like i wasted money.
- It’s a great game for $30, but at full price+dlc it can get a bit pricey

Escape from Tarkov

Maybe I just didn't spend enough time researching how to actually play the game but it didn't live up to the hype.

Honorable mentions: Squad and The Division 2

Forza Motorsport. Years and years of development for a bug ridden mess that’s shockingly light on content.

Between this and Starfall my expectations for anything coming from Microsoft game studios has plummeted.

I don’t know how Microsoft fumbled so badly with FM7. GT7 has been doing great, PC Simracing is the biggest it’s ever been (outside of covid bubble peak). The market is there to the point they could have been a major player, but the game is basically DOA and I can’t figure out where it went wrong.

Recent? None so far.

Somewhat old? Civilization III. I ordered it like 5 years ago and was trying to scratch the itch left by Call to Power II, but the multiplayer is flaky at best on LAN and the tech tree just isn't interesting to me. Later entries also have the "tech tree doesn't interest me" thing and also don't scratch the Call to Power itch (they don't have the wacky future tech like hover tanks and eco-warfare) but they also look a lot more visually interesting at least.

I miss when stacking was a thing in Civ. Sure it was relatively unbalanced, but that's part of the fun in my experience.

/end grandpa rant

By stacking do you mean combining units to form a single stronger unit? If so, Civ 6 has that, albeit only up to three units.
- By stacking, I mean adding the units together on a single tile into armies so the units all fight together. Civ VI does have this, but in a very limited capacity (as you mentioned, up to 3 units). Older games had many more stacking possibilities (Civ III actually had infinite unit stacking, which was cataclysmically crazy lol, but I think Call to Power II really struck a good number with a max of 12 units in a tile)

The settlers 2 history edition after I discovered that there is also an community remake (Settlers 2 RTTR) which is just overall better and actually fixed some decades old bugs, which the official re-release apprently didn't bother with. But that's Ubisoft for you.

Faefarm. Not that it is a terrible game, it just wasn't worth paying full price for. I was in a bad spot and needed a cozy comfort game, and it was great for that. But there just wasn't enough there for me to justify the 60$ price tag. Wish I had just waited for a sale.

With you on that one.

AC Valhalla.

I played though all the other ones but that one felt so soulless and bland. I expected it to not be great but nothing this bad.

Then again I finally realized recently that I don't actually enjoy open world games (with some exceptions).

IMO the open world was a bad shift for the AC games, I haven't enjoyed one since Unity. Hoping Mirage is solid, but they lost my trust so I won't pay full price either
- AC has kinda been open world the whole time it's when they expanded it then changed every mechanic of the game. It became less about being a stealth assassin and more about brute strength. Large out in the open combat instead of death from the shadows.

I know this isnt what you asked, but the last seven or so games that I have purchased have been EXCELLENT and that is super rare for me! Elden ring (on release, I dont buy a lot of games), Armored Core 6, Nioh 1, Nioh 2, Baldurs Gate 3, Resident Evil 4 Remake, Dead Space Remake.

I was so sad when I beat AC6 because it was so short ;-;
- Just s rank every mission and then get sad all over again

I want my money back for battlebit remastered. It took about six hours to realize "wait, this game is half baked" last summer. Steam did not accept my refund request just one hour outside of their standard trial window (which they've always been extremely cool about before), i'm guessing because a bunch of people didn't like it all at once. I tried it again just a month or so ago, a bunch of stuff is still wonky, and the logarithmic decrease in players (even after a spike from winter sale) since its peak last june reflects this. Seems to me they put all their effort into skin and map "content" than actually fixing bugs or improving systems and mechanics.

This is the cycle most new FPS games have done the last few years. Nothing outside of CoD, Apex and Fortnite seem to stick. The Finals, Battlebit, Splitgate all had massive initial players, then drop off significantly once it’s no longer the newest, greatest thing and go back to the established games.

Skins and Maps are easy money to attempt to keep development going, as these games are often released before they’re ready and due to the financial situation of the developers.
- What happened to splitgate? I thought it was pretty good, at least it was 100% ready for launch with interesting concepts. I dropped it because I realized I couldn't compete with the kids these days... getting older and my hands and fingers don't work as quickly as they used to, I frankly suck at aiming now. I'm disappointed to see its 300 player count now, I assumed it would do well with its concept and execution being so good simultaneously. What did I miss?
- To be fair battlebit fucked the game up. People left because they started making the game like CoD which is opposite of what most people were looking for in the game. Battlebit drove people away. It wasn’t because it wasn’t new anymore.
  
  That and lots and LOTS of cheaters. Blaming it all on ADHD folks is disingenuous.

Sonic Frontiers

The Front
Lethal Company

That weird followup to breath of the wild. Game was just annoying playing as the other characters. I think I maybe put 15 minutes into before I cut my losses.

… Hyule Warriors?
- Yeah.
That’s a Zelda reskin of another game. It’s not really in the Zelda canon, kind of like Link’s appearance in soul caliber. It was just meant to wring an extra buck from Zelda fans.

Lawn Mowing Simulator

The deluxe remaster game of the year edition really fixed most of the original flaws with LMS. It's truly masterclass now.

That Avatar game.

I thought it was an Assassin's Creed game with an Avatar skin, but it's a Far Cry game with an Avatar skin.

Same. I platinumed both of the horizon games and thought even being ubisoft it was getting good reviews so I went for it. Absolute bore fest. Pretty world, and traversing it felt good. But none of the actual gameplay was any fun.

Squad. People said that I would like it because I like Arma 3, but with no AI scenarios, editor or singleplayer for that matter, I just didn't like it. It felt too sweaty as opposed to Arma where I can take my time or have a casual game of Wasteland. Plus it feels like there isn't a casual gamemode in Squad like Arma KOTH which is basically just giant tdm with some squad and support mechanics.

I rarely bought game lately, so it's gonna be game from 2020 to now.

Grim Dawn: it's really a subpar diablo clone and it's boring, enemy either dies immediately or it's spongy as heck. Played to the point where i have to get to some manor but thus far the gameplay feels bland, and looking at the skill tree it doesn't offer much new thing. Not enjoying this one

Black Mesa: Not remorse per se, but i got bored of it and turn my attention to something else.

Call of Juarez Gunslinger: again, not remorse, i got bored of it.

Elder Scrolls Online: i have no idea what i expect from it, and i'm disappointed anyway. I thought it will play like the other ES but it's really just an MMO. Bought it with other game on sales but by the time i play it it's already off the refund time.

Forza Horizon 4: it's pretty good actually, but i feels like it just wasn't a good kb&m game. I can't turn well in curved road when in high speed while the bot turn just fine. It's one of those game that's meant for race wheel. This and asseto corsa have the same issue, and i was led to believe i can play just fine with kb&m but that wasn't the case at my end.

Space Pirate and Zombie 2: it's boring.

Incredible that you got bored with this list, it's literally some of my favorites.

One thing though, you should play horizon with a controller. It's not good with a wheel. And racing games haven't been good on m+kb in ages. You may have a chance if you hook up steering to the mouse, but all the Forza games are really meant to be played with controller.

Darktide. One of the biggest complaints about Vermintide 2 is that it is too god damn grindy, so what did Fatshark do with it's next game? Make it so much worse.

I want to do build crafting, I want to try new weapons, but to experience the endgame means hitting the slots again and again hoping to get a weapon I can build on. It ruins what could otherwise be a good game, and I just can't do it anymore.

::: CW: Unpopular opinion, incoming:

Tears of the Kingdom

:::

Vermintide 2 Just not my kind of gameplay.

Nothing. Alan Wake and Cyberpunk are both incredible. Next will be Alan Wake 2 and then Death Stranding.

Oh yes. Alan Wake was such a surprise, like 1980s Stephen King. All those well-connected hints and mysteries. I have yet to play Alan Wake 2, but I loved the first part.
- And it looks so good as a remaster. The animations are all great, so with the updated textures and lighting it looks and plays like a brand new game.
Fair warning, AW2 leans a lot more into horror than the first did. If you've played the resident evil 2 remake, it's kinda like that.
- Latest patch gives a horror/jump scare toggle.

Remnant2. It wasn't bad exactly, but it didn't click for me. Not worth the $40. Maybe it's more fun with friends. But it just seemed kind of.. meh. Maybe I'd there were double the monsters or something

Danganronpa V3.

It's not bad but I could have just watched a playthrough because the "game" is so linear and the logic is so easy (even on "mean" difficulty) that there's no way to fail unless I was lobotomized.

It's a fun anime though. I should just watch the two seasons of the actual anime of it.

I think they do this on purpose, both Dangaronpa and Zero Escape had controversial endings to the series. I feel the V3 ending was a middle finger to the fans of the serie.
- Is that why I've not actually seen much about it? lol
  
  I got it because I watched Game grumps play the first 2 and wanted more.

All of them. I should be studying and working

has assignments due in

*plays palworld for 120 hours in 2 weeks

If i would have bought watch dogs legion for full price I would have buyers remorse for sure. But I picked it up for 8 bucks and had a few hours of fun with it. So most of this thread is more about price for fun than anything I guess.

The Planet Crafter. Which is actually a terrific game, but I don't really have enough graphics card to play it properly. I have it at the lowest detail settings and the game still grinds to a near-halt when I'm in some parts of the map. Parts that I need to be in to advance. It doesn't crash, but I get something like one frame per five minutes. Maybe I should have waited until it was out of early access but I was impatient and the early game has been so much fun.

Atomic Heart. I was excited to learn that Mick Gordon participated in the music and I got hooked by the aesthetic of the intro sequence, but the drawn-out underground lab ~~mission~~ series of fetch quests completely killed my enjoyment. I'd only gotten to three out of four macguffins before I gave up.

The insufferable talking glove didn't help either.

That game has way too much dialogue.

But I really enjoyed the game overall. The combat was engaging, imo. The art style is great. The story didn't matter a whole lot.

It felt like the first portal game to me, actually. Story doesn't matter, you move from room to room enjoying the puzzles (and combat in the case of Atomic Heart), and finish the game.

I quite enjoyed my time with it.

Helldivers 2. I just found it boring. I'm waiting still for my refund, I only haf about 1.5 hours in it. But only 45 minutes of gameplay. I managed to only get a few matches and they were very dry.

I just bought this and installed it and was going to play it after the kiddo went to bed. I'm a little bit worried that it's not going to be something I'm interested in.p
- It's an amazing game. I can understand why it wouldn't be for everyone though.
- It's a cool concept, but just seems short of what I expected. Seems the majority of good stuff is much much further down the line in it. I'd say Deep Rock is better option for this kind of game. Doing missions and fighting hoards of bugs.
- I'm enjoying it, I also loved the first one so my expectations were perfectly set for it (the same exact game but 3rd person shooter instead of top down dual stick shooter)

Young Souls. I'm pretty forgiving when it comes to couch co-op games if we find one we can both enjoy.

And this one was good, but it was basically unplayable on the Switch (or, at least, constantly crashed mine). Finally got to the very end (where there's no saving from the start of the end cutscene until the finale) and it crashed before the final battle. Restarted, got through several minutes of cutscenes, got a little farther but crashed again, this time in the final battle. Tried one more time and it crashed again in a different spot. Promptly deleted the game.

So I guess we'll never finish that one.

Last one for me was Batman something something. Arkham something maybe. Don't really care about batman, didn't enjoy the mechanics, don't remember if there was a story, no idea why I bought it.

I've since realized that if you just wait a year or two games usually a) work properly and b) cost less. Haven't had buyers remorse in a long while.

Tiny Tina Wonderland but only because my friend has been busy lately so we didn't start yet, I could do with that money that I bought it on sale though...

Brotato. I mean, it's cheap, so not a huge regret, but I really thought I would like it, but only ended up playing it twice .

I'm glad I didn't but that new Enshrouded. I was really excited for it. I'm so picky about new games and thought this could be one. But the first moments I saw some playthrough today, and I saw the crappy graphics, I was out. I don't even want to see anyone play it. Yuck.

Why in 2024 do they release these "hot" games with jaggy graphics, low quality graphics, cartoony and low color graphics?

Nostalgia first and formost imo. There's a big enough crowd of gamers who miss the days when games were more about gameplay as a pinnacle characteristic of video games. So if game devs don't have to have the latest and greatest visuals, but focus more on the story, gameplay, and characters, they have a game market.

Where The Water Tastes Like Wine. Got tired of hearing the game's mouth before even getting to anything resembling a main gameplay loop, chose to exit, and it started another long winded speech, which I Alt+F4'd out of. I learned of this game via youtube recommendations of its soundtrack, liked some of the songs, game went on my wishlist. Got a Steam notification it was on sale, hit buy. Was busy with other shit for awhile, when I got around to playing and UTTTERLY FUCKING HATING it for thoroughly refusing to respect my time, the Steam refund period had lapsed. Did you know there's a "remove from library" feature where you can just...unown a game. I've used it precisely once.
BATTLETECH. I was thinking "Hmm, I've enjoyed this franchise for awhile but never actually played the tabletop game, and I live in an oubliette so I'm the only person within 100 miles that's even HEARD of the game, so maybe this will let me experience that gameplay. I died of old age three times in a row just waiting for the opening cinematic to finish. It's in the style of "slide the camera slowly across hand-drawn art while a voice actor monologues" things. It ran like constipation, somehow. Like it felt like the computer was struggling to handle what should have been simple video playback. The story is apparently about YET ANOTHER non-canonical pointless little periphery nation to be served by YET ANOTHER pointless little lance-strength mercenary company. The main menu appears and gave me a choice between 'Story Mission" and "Campaign" which...those are synonyms. Then we FINALLY after four generations have come and gone we get in-engine, and the tutorial mission is the last goddamn straw. They vomit story and gameplay control tutorials at you simultaneously, so you're hit with a voice saying "The duchess knows she can count on you.", a prompt at the bottom of the screen that says "Press T to use your weapons" and a text box on the left edge of the screen that says 'The duchess understands that it's dangerous being in a Battletech game, but she knows you'll do the best you can."

Buying RDR2 to play Red Dead Online with a friend. I got disconnected three different times while trying to complete the first mission, which you have to finish before the game lets you do anything else. Every single time I had to start the mission over from the beginning, including the stupid-ass cutscene.

I gave up after the third time when I got dropped as I was literally about to finish. Fuck that scam.

Red dead redemption 2. I bought a used copy and the asshole at game stop asked if I wanted insurance and I was like no. Shit never worked and was too lazy to go complain.

Tell em you want a refund, they probably take those

All of them.

The only one I wouldn't are those I didn't pay for like Sauerbraten & Wesnoth. But I didn't pay for them so NA.

And now I play board games.

None.

Almost always I can tell if a game is for me or not within the first four hours and I'll just return it on Steam if it isn't. I've done it dozens and dozens of times without any problems.

Now, sometimes I'll not be entirely sure if those four hours are enough but some reviews left me unsure. Star field was such a case. I procured that through alternative channels and decided after about twenty hours and four times as many crashes that it was indeed shit.

So, starfield then?

I thought steam's return policy was 2 hrs
- If any, then Starfield, although I'd just call it downloaders remorse, I guess.
  
  And I'm pretty sure it's four hours.

Balders Gate 3.

I really hate conversation trees. In a TTRPG you come up with any solution, and the GM will adjudicate it. In BG3, you have a couple of options in each scene. Not at all surprising, given that it's just a fancy choose your own adventure, but still, I'd forgotten how confining it feels.

I tried to return it, but I'd started the game and then gone off to do something else, which had pushed me an hour or two out of the return window.

In a TTRPG you come up with any solution, and the GM will adjudicate it.

This is literally impossible in video games. Did you actually expect something like this?
- I was expecting more variety in options. Most of the dialogues only had a couple of branches, and they weren't ones I would choose in a TTRPG.
- With the way generative AI is progressing, I wouldn't say it's impossible.
Isn’t that pretty much every RPG ever though? Almost all of them have illusion of choice and majority of the time, it doesn’t matter. I will agree with the constricting feeling of BG3, though for me that comes less from dialogue and more from the lack of build variety (which might just be me being really used to 3.5e and not 5e).

Funnily enough, the best game that shows reactivity to your choices isn’t even an RPG, it’s a very fancy CYOA - Detroit: Become Human.
- Isn’t that pretty much every RPG ever though?
  
  As far as I know, yes. I almost never play them, but I'm on a D&D kick and I got carried away.
- I love BG3 but I will agree that the dialogue options sometimes seem pretty restrictive, or just come out of nowhere, but that's pretty much par for the course for RPGs.
  
  What I really wish they had was more options for relationships, because it's a little annoying how getting into any character's good graces immediately means they're trying to fuck you. I wanna tell Gale that I just wanna be best bros without having to break his poor heart to do so.
  
  And why is Shadowheart so possessive? Sure, I wanna see where that goes, but I also really want to get into Karlach's pants as well as find out how much of a freak in the sheets Halsin is. Why can't we just be one big bisexual polycule? That sounds like it'd be really hot.