Kenshi is back on sale for 12$. It's a special kind of special, but someone out there might connect with it. Lots of yt videos to get a feel for gameplay.
This is one of those games that I love the description, love the sales pitches, streamers do a good job of promoting it. In paper I should love this game, but it just doesn't gel with me. There's something about video games that just cannot be conveyed through video or text.
Celeste is 75% off and is a near-masterpiece of a game.
Portal 1 and Portal 2 are on sale again of course on the chance you haven't yet hit these absolutely classic legendary games.
Persona 4 Golden is 40% off and is awesome, and Persona 5 Royal is 60% and is even more awesome.
Metal: Hellsinger is 70% off and while it isn't a GOTY type game, it's a hell of a lot of fun if you're a contemporary metal music fan.
but my biggest recommendation is probably gonna be
Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale at 80% for only $3.99 (US) which is an completely underrated hidden gem of a game and a huge recommendation for anyone who likes quirky cozy-hybrid games or who, like me, spent way too long on the shopkeeper segments in RPGs like Torneko Taloon's chapter in DQIV.
edit: why in the world would anyone ever downvote a personal recommendation comment? Weird behavior, fam
Metal: Hellsinger is 70% off and while it isn’t a GOTY type game, it’s a hell of a lot of fun if you’re a contemporary metal music fan.
Have you played BPM: Bullets Per Minute? If so, how would you say it compares? I like metal and I like shooting demons, but that one never really grabbed me, I'm not sure why.
Can anyone recommend a good multiplayer shooter with a high player population? (Either 2D or VR is fine.) Or any non-MMO, non-role-playing PvP game that is mostly online and has populated servers? Something my 37-year-old ass can just jump into and play a quick match without having to dedicate my life to it?
Getting sick of all the PUBGs, Counter-Strikes, Call of Duties, and Overwatches/Marvel Rivalses. My best gaming memories were during the Battlefield: Bad Company 2 days. I never had more fun in a shooter than when I was playing Rush. But unfortunately EA never managed to recapture that same magic in the sequels. After the 2042 flop I quit Battlefield for good.
BattleBit Remastered is legitimately the tightest battlefield-like fps i’ve ever played, better than name-brand battlefield even. it fills the exact same niche for me.
i play with mic off and still manage serviceable communication with a squad of randies pretty much every game. there’s relatively frequent balance updates, so the meta isn’t focused on any one single playstyle. it’s exactly what i imagine an fps made by fps-junkies to look like.
Also playing support actually feels rewarding, and i think that’s proper rare in multiplayer games.
e: fuck hahah just kidding apparently it was abandoned by the devs. last update 15 months ago, rip to my favorite fps :c
Due Process is a multiplayer competitive shooter similar in vein to Counterstrike or Rainbow Six Siege, but the maps are somewhat procedurally generated (there's tilesets and certain rooms layouts for every map) meaning there's no consistant strategy and sniper points to meta game. You play as defenders guarding a bomb or attackers breaking into the building to disarm the bomb, switching sides after 3 rounds. Rounds last 2 minutes with an extra minute given at the start to plan out the strategy. The economy of weapons works in that all the guns for 3 rounds are all available at the start and only the living players get to bring weapons to the next round. The original devs are no longer working on it I believe, but it is being updated and maintained by volunteers.
Operation Harsh Doorstop is my favorite fps, it is a semi-realistic vehicle big map shooter.. but it has mod support and mods like Casualfield (which has active multiplayer servers) have much more Call Of Duty like gameplay. It is free, no live service crap. Even if you don't like where the vanilla game is right now, keep your eye on it, it is an easy platform for other shooters to be modded on. Player population isn't huge but there are consistently full servers. I also don't think the realistic nature of the game makes it less accessible than a game like battlebit, since there is such a specific gun meta at certain ranges in arcadey games like battlebit, and everything happens so fast with constantly rushing smg players... it is actually really hard to break into when you are playing on even normal pub servers. Apex Legends is in my opinion the worst game with this. In a game like OHD though, an assault rifle with a scope can do pretty much anything well enough, though you might prefer a more specific kit for a situation, but there isn't this crazy focus on constantly changing weird metas and gun balances to pump up paid skins for a gun that was just added... This is just a free moddable big map vehicle shooter with a server browser and barebones singleplayer, which is awesome.
Halo Infinite I grew up with Halo 1-3, I don't have any special love for 343, but Halo Infinite big team battle is the best halo multiplayer has ever been. Capture the flag is amazing with the warthogs the way they are balanced in halo infinite, I can't stand microsoft lol but damn halo infinite is in a nice state now.
Splitgate Ok, player population isn't massive, but this is a realllllly good game, even outside the portal gun mechanic. The gunplay is great and the jetpack is tuned perfectly. Can't recommend it enough!
Easy Red 2 Alright now I am just straight up lying, this game never has huge concurrent numbers, but you can give large numbers of forces commands pretty easy in the interface (like you can drive a half track up to an objective and order your squad to dismount and assault). It is another WW2 game... but this game actually strives for historical specificity in lots of areas that aren't usually covered in WW2 games. There is a great diversity of armor, vehicles and fighter planes, the games is a blast and is a steal at around $10. Cross platform tooo!!?!?!?! Great for bot bashing.
Imo they're better. Portal was more groundbreaking because of when the first one came out, what valve was doing at the time, because everybody played it, and because of its connection with other games at the time.
But now, it's just a very good game that (re)introduced portals as a concept into pop culture and repopulatized and proved that AAA puzzle games were possible.
Talos, on the other hand, is a philosophical indie sleeper, and more of a social experiment. I don't like comparing it to portal, because most people see portal as an insurmountable peak with an impenetrable meme forcefield. And yeah, portal is great. But the Talos games are something very different and stands all on its own.
I have over 600 hours in Anno 1800 and highly recommend it buuuut I would advise people consider the more expensive edition that includes all the expansions.
I got myself and can recommend:
Returnal (29.99€) (Rogue-like shooter),
Wisper (6.99€) (Open world exploration) and Crossroads OS (3.74€) (Puzzle game).
I can further recommend:
Studio System (8.84€) (Horror),
With My Past (6.59€) (Puzzle),
Signalis (13.99€) (Horror).
I went in blind and gave up after about 3 hours. I have no idea what the fuck is going on, which makes it too easy to die to the same thing over and over again, because I can't remember which paths lead to progress and which ones lead to death.
Outer Wilds is a game for normies with a good memory and proper motor skills.
Idk why you got downvoted. Borderlands 3 for $6 is a pretty good deal. And $16 for the complete edition isn't bad either. I already own the full collection on steam so I can't see the price of that, but when I bought it during the last sale I wanna say I spent like maybe $50 on the entire Borderlands series.
There really is a "Lemmy hive mind" starting to form, just like reddit.
Noita is currently 60% off and is hands down the best game I have ever played (kind of).
It is ridiculously brutal and you will die very often but you have the potential to get ludicrously powerful as well.
The game will cheese you so don't be afraid to cheese it back.
In has so much content that beating the final boss for the first time is considered beating the tutorial.
Also if the some aspects are too bullshit for you there is a variety of mods to fix these, and there is absolutely no shame in using them.
I also picked this up recently and am enjoying it a lot. Can't speak for the multiplayer, but the singleplayer is very good. There are a lot of meaningful choices and variety that keep things fresh throughout and between runs.
They may not have lived up to the hype when initially released, which was understandable as there were a lot of promises that weren't keeps, but they are undoubtedly still absolutely amazing games.
I'm making myself finish Fell Seal before I start it, but I picked up Triangle Strategy at what gg.deals says is the record low price. As an FFT fanboy, it looks great (and so is Fell Seal for that matter).
If you are the simmy type or like space, Elite Dangerous is insanely good, but has a learning curve up front. It's the only game I've put over 1,100 hours in and still haven't explored everything.
Subnautica is another game I can highly recommend.
If you wanna play games with friends (Elite is also MP), The Forest is a great game to bond over.
I have 1000 hours in Elite and it's nowhere near as on rails or limited. It's set in a full scale Milky Way where you can pick up missions from a station's bulletin board, hunt pirates, or just pick a direction and jump to make discoveries, spending months alone scanning systems. The game has well developed lore that regularly updates through an in game feed, but it's mostly background fluff unless you want to strengthen your faction or if there's a major community event. It's also a good time to jump in since new ships have been added and the galaxy is rebuilding after the last war event.
Different genres. Starfield is mostly you running around on foot, having shootouts, and interacting with people and human-sized environments. The space combat is basically an elaborate mini-game.
Elite Dangerous is mostly about flying space ships around.
Personally, I liked Starfield, though I think that it's weaker than most prior Bethesda offerings. I stopped playing Elite Dangerous, though I have enjoyed some past space-combat-and-trading games, like Escape Velocity. Just never really hooked me. I didn't like the Elite Dangerous "faux online multiplayer" thing at all --- multiplayer breaking immersion in crafted environments is one thing that I'm not a fan of, and unnecessarily adding that just seemed obnoxious to me. The cockpit UI felt like it was more-oriented towards VR use to me, which may be good if you have a VR headset.
The inability to resize the Undertale window without using a third-party program like Sizer continues to be INFURIATING to me.
Undertale is a good game, but it just makes me so goddamn angry every time I open it to not have control over the sizing on my own goddamn monitor that I haven't been able to finish it.
I watched someone's entire playthrough of it on YouTube, which I find to be a decent middle ground. In fact, someone else I know doesn't even game any more and just watches playthroughs; better to see an expert do it with insightful or fun commentary than to get frustrated from not knowing what to do, etc. when we have such limited time in our lives anyway. Maybe that's why I generally prioritize roguelites nowadays; if I'm gonna play something, I wanna ensure it's a unique challenge that possibly not even the devs have ever exactly seen, and not simply be treated like a rat in a fixed maze to figure out precisely or struggle otherwise when other people have done it.
Anyway, I digress; Infested Planet is $1.94 USD for another recommendation, and it's awesome. The trailer undersells it if anything.
I think I missed the window on Undertale. Who knows, if I played it when I was 17 I might have a different opinion but the whole "I'm so quirky and random" schtick doesn't really land with me.
BF3's campaign was average. It had an interesting story and had some memorable parts but other than that it felt short and generic.
BF4's is worse though. It was just as short and generic as BF3's in terms of gameplay, but so was the story and the general presentation this time around. Not to mention that it's really damn buggy, the bugs that were present during the game's launch were never patched for the campaign. For instance, the FOV slider doesn't work at all.
I haven't played any of the other camaigns so I can't proprerly judge them.
I just bought Suicide Squad (I know, I know, but it was on sale and I want to experience it at least a little); Pine; and Sniper Elite 2R, 3 and 4.
I'm very excited to get into the Sniper Elite games. I played 5 back when I had Game Pass, but never finished. I figured the others might be just as good.
The entire Creeper World series is on sale- Creeper World 1 and 2 are $2.49, Creeper World 3 is $4.94, and Creeper World 4 is $9.99. Personally, I don't like Creeper World 2 so I would suggest any of them but that one. CW2 is side on and I'm not a fan. CW1 and 3 are top down, and CW4 is properly 3D.
The first couple of Creeper World games used to be flash games you could play in browser, but after the age of Java games they ported them to Steam and kept making more and better games.
The basic concept is that it's a cross between a very simplified RTS and a tower defense game, with the added curveball that the enemy is just a liquid that won't stop showing up everywhere.
We picked up Journey and Star Traders Frontier. I've wanted to play Journey since it came out but I didn't have the proper console. Well, I forgot I put it on the wishlist, and that's a real good price so.
I've (sung? musically yelled at?) another person already.
I keep trying to get into Elite but it never clicks for me. I was flying around earlier trying to dock into a station but everyone was refusing me so I closed the game. I’ll probably look up a new players guide before giving it another attempt later.
Was it Elite Dangerous? Stations grant docking clearance if you're within range when you request it; I think it's about 7500 meters. Check out the in-game the tutorials. One of them teaches this.
I have the A10 Warthog set up but have to screw around for side thrusters because they're replicas of the A10 warthog controls which obviously doesn't have side thrusters.
You can play without it all but it does make flying more fun and imersive and afterall thats what it's all about
No Man’s Sky is down to $23.99. I remember the launch was poor but they kept working on it and improving it. I picked it up a couple years ago on Xbox and have enjoyed it
It is way more of an enjoyable experience now than it was on launch. I just still find it sort of flawed on a core level. The exploration is clearly supposed to be a primary focus of the game, but I just find it incredibly bland after a bit. After I finished with that, I don't really know what to do with the game aside from.. keep flying around trying to find something worth finding.
I put 40hrs into it. I don't regret that, but I also have zero interest in continuing to play it past that.
I bought it a couple of months ago and oh boy this game is amazing. The story is really well written. I am not much of a first person shooter guy but this game is definitely worth it. The story is great, the atmosphere is amazing, it is a really well made game and especially now with the overall international state of affairs and the rise of AI, its depressively dystopian story feels even more relatable and even the fighting is fun and versatile.
The gameplay is boring and the story is confusing; don't bother unless you just want some eye candy to show off what your 4090/5090 can do. The game is a heavily polished turd.
I'm liking that 3 feels more like Shaft than a stereotypical mobster movie game, so I could see how it might not be what you're looking for if you want the good ol' Italian mob themes.
Rain World is very, very niche in its appeal, but it's perhaps the best argument for games as art that I've ever come across. I've never had to rethink what a game even is in order to engage with something before.
Lingo ($6.99/$9.99) is an incredible exploration and word puzzle game. It also has a few excellent custom maps such as Duolingo and Liduongo.
A sequel (Lingo 2 $9.99) just released and is also excellent. It changes how puzzle rules are presented, making them playable in either order. It's a more polished experience though, so playing the first game after would probably feel like a step backward.
Can you elaborate where your confusion lies? It's a digital good, there is no marginal cost. So they can pretty much price a game however they want. So pricing is mostly about maximising revenue, i.e. get as many sales as you can at the highest possible price.
A sale is a relatively straightforward strategy where you first sell the game at a high price to all the people who are fine with paying a lot, then you lower the price to sell more copies to the people who weren't willing to pay the higher price. The result is more total profit. There is a time limit too to create a sense of urgency ("I better buy now so I don't miss the opportunity").
Real goods have a limited lifespan, they usually go on sales when they are about to reach the end of their life or when you physically have to get rid of them. Software doesn't expire.
A price is usually set to cover the initial costs and to make a reasonable profit not to squeeze how much money you can from people.
Its for the people that only buy when its a "good deal". Its usually for old games that are well liked or for newer games that are maybe a year old now. The non sale price is for people who can't wait for the discount. Sorta like waiting for a movie to go to video/streaming rather than go to the theater.