Overwatch.
Oroginally I dismissed it as just being a TF2 clone, and being a very loyal TF2 player at the time I didn’t want to play it as I consodered it a blatant ripoff. However, I started going to a LAN party group at work in 2017 and Overwatch was the only FPS they played so I got it. It still does feel similar to TF2 but the variety of characters got me hooked and it became my most played game for many years until OW2 came out and ruined everything. Getting back into it now though and they’ve toned down some of the bad decisions of OW2 since launch. Now I’m dating a girl who plays Overwatch as well and we’ve been playing constantly so I’m back into it completely now.
Prey (2017), Monster Hunter, Stalker, Dark Souls. All great games that only show their true self after some time investment. Not too ridiculous time investment apart from Monster Hunter which gets really fun literally only after a few tens of hours, maybe even a hundred. I wish I was kidding.
Elden Ring. So glad a friend dragged me back. Stone cold masterpiece.
Yessss! This is the game that caused me to have the idea to do this post.
I first played it about a year ago. I used the two hour Steam refund period, which in retrospect probably caused me to rush or not give it enough of a chance.
Fast forward to now, when I’m dealing with a nasty chronic health condition and lots of time on my hands. And I’m between games - basically waiting for stuff to come out, like the Factorio DLC.
So I poked around and somehow Elden Ring came up as a possibility. And then I found THIS video:
Elden Ring Is a Masterpiece — my thoughts after 60 hours
https://youtu.be/kdstSHeoNGA?si=xo1ea2b1WGYBexJJ
And it got me so hyped that I ended up watching a ton more videos. And finally I plunked down the $60 and gave it a shot.
Now I can’t stop thinking about it. I am in love with the jaw dropping terrain, inventive enemies, depth of play styles and options, the brilliant way it hints at things instead of spamming a map with quest markers and to do lists. I’ve had moments that felt like I was on the inside of an epic fantasy novel, living an otherworldly fever dream of awesomeness.
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Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Horizon Zero Dawn. The first time I played it I could not get into the tutorial, just felt so bland. Then years later I tried it again, pushed through the tutorial, and it’s now my all time favorite video game series.
Hades. I’m not really sure why it didn’t grab me the first time…
If I were to guess, it’s because the randomness of the upgrades is just a little too random at first. Once you get used to it, and get some upgrades, the game is no longer as frustrating.
After I beat the game, I installed some mods that made it so you were more likely to get certain gods (and you could choose which ones), and it became quite a bit more fun. Getting the combo powers, and ones that you were interested in, wasn’t some super rare occurrence anymore.
Horizon Zero Dawn
Same here. I first played it in 2019 and was immediately terrified of the enemy machines. Since I’m the kind of person who doesn’t enjoy being stressed out for fun in any context, I pretty quickly bounced off of it. I also eventually realized that I saw death/game over in video games as irredeemable failure, and I’m working on being more accepting of trial and error (in video games and elsewhere in my life). I returned to it in early 2022, tried different strategies when I died, and realized that I loved the game. Zero Dawn, Forbidden West, and their DLCs are now among the very few games I have 100 percented.
Fallout 4. I died easily early on and quit after 20 minutes. A year or so later I picked it back up. 700 hours of gameplay later, I think I’ve changed my mind.
I wouldn’t really call it a favorite, but I definitely ended up liking Nier: Automata pretty well after bouncing off it really hard when trying it at a friend’s house. That’s because we were trying from the start, and it starts with a section that’s about half an hour long, with only two checkpoints, vastly harder than anything else in the game, and in which the first half isn’t even the same genre as the rest of the game. It’s seriously one of the worst intros I can think of in a video game. The rest of the game is, y’know, a pretty good third-person action RPG.
The Witcher 2. I died so many goddamn times in the intro scene, rage quit, came back years later and thoroughly enjoyed it.
I started and quickly lost interest. I think I forgot the role mechanic while going through the first real dungeon. Bosses are hard without rolling
Eve online.
Hows the active player count and meta looking these days?
Afair ccp has been killing the game for some time now.
As far as I notice they aren’t “killing the game” but I’ve been much happier since I gave up the idea of doing big null sec corpo blob wars and I assume those are the people that might have valid complaints.
I love the small gang cheap ship roams. Nothing like a fleet of mining frigates loaded for bear jumping haulers and randos in null sec. You get to be your own bait. I have been a little sad about the stealth nerfs, I miss just roaming in a stealth ship solo.
I’ve never found another game that can make my heart pound and adrenaline race like eve online.
What stealth nerfs? Did they nerf my beloved Astero?
I was a worhmoler back when I was still playing so big null block stuff isn’t really my forte
The return to expansions and giving out 7 days of omega for each has been a massive boost to numbers. the current expansion adds a few Pirate factions to the Faction warfare system. So happy we can finally join the good guys.
We will be watching your career with great interest.
Etrian Odyssey
I tried the demo for the fourth one and just didn’t really like or get it. A couple years later Atlus announced Persona Q (which has mostly the same gameplay as Etrian Odyssey) so, I decided to give the demo another try and it just clicked this time. I have no idea why I didn’t like it the first time around.
fallout 3. first time i ever played a game like it. stopped playing because the subways scared me and i was out of ammo
Pokémon Unite
I tried it early on but I felt it lacked the maturity and depth of playing a more serious and in-depth MOBA like League of Legends. I played a lot of Pokémon games throughout the years but it just paled compared to how fulfilling the long-form games and lore of Leagues went.
Turns out I’m a dad now and these shorter, punchier games are both perfect for me and somehow more fulfilling. On top of that they added complexity with Boost Medallions without breaking the game with them. It makes the setup more cerebral because you lose stats as well as gain.
Mass Effect
The first time I played it I completely missed that I could pick a class. I just kept getting Soldier and not having any fun.
I tried the caster based classes first and hated how awkward they were, and soldier is what made the game so much better.
