Baldur’s Gate 3
A lot of folks are listing their favorite games but this is the one that truly fits.
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Unusually long development time by a studio known for DnD-simmiliar RPG games getting the next installation for the series that defined the genre.
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Cast voice actors for several years, ones that are still playing their characters on a variety of platforms.
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Just chock filled references to DnD lore, cute in-jokes, and faithful updates on old characters.
Everyone involved clearly loved it!
It got people not previously interested in DND to actually enjoy DND.
Also, as a literal interpretation, it occurs over 3 arcs.
Unusually long development time
No joke, I installed the open-beta/pre-release years ago, played for a bit, and uninstalled it. When the actual release dropped, I had the most intense déjà vu about it all because I forgot that had even happened. I had to go back to my Steam library to puzzle it all back together.
The real question is what is Larian’s equivalent to Peter Jackson’s “Meet the Feebles”?
Divinity: Dragon Commander, duh.
Part of the reason development took so long was due to them using early release for the right reasons. They listened to the player base and changed the game based on feedback from the fans
…LotR didn’t take long to film though?
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As far as labors of love go, Stardew Valley is probably the most current example. People paid for this thing years ago, but Concerned Ape keeps adding new features anyway. The retro graphics give this thing a timeless quality out of the box, so it already looks “dated” - this hasn’t stopped the robust player community around it. We’ll probably see this game stay relevant for a long time.
And that’s before you start talking about modding the game.
The amount of mods for this game is insane. From simple QoL stuff through to full expansions.
No replay of the game ever has to be the same.
Do people ever do total conversion modifications anymore? Are there any Stardew Valley mods that turn it into something totally different?
I have no idea. Only recently tried an expansion mod for the first time. I never even considered conversion mods might be a thing for this game.
I was just reminiscing on how people used to do stuff like that for the early FPSes. And honestly, since I never really got into Stardew, I thought it might be cool to see a totally different world.
Hope you’re enjoying the expansion!
Yeah it’s been great. Stardew Valley Expanded adds areas and characters and stuff to the game that feels like they belong in the original world. The creator did an amazing job.
Half-life.
Yeah this is it for me. Half Life was such a technical marvel and a step change in story telling through gaming.
Baldurs Gate 3.
Terraria
Java modded Minecraft.
One Shot
Outer Wilds
Portalouter wilds my beloved <3 <3 >.<
Outer wilds is just ridiculously good. Somehow the DLC matches the OG story’s level of insanely good. Best game I’ve ever played, or probably ever will.
Morrowind
- Half-Life/Half-Life 2
- The original Fallout
- The original Doom
- Brutal Doom (the campaign)
- Star Control 2 (The Ur’Quan Masters fan-made modernized version)
- The Neverhood
- Subnautica (not Below Zer0)
- Duke Nukem 3D
- Total Annihilation
- Megaman (the first one)
- Megaman X (the first one)
- Team Fortress 2
- Portal 2
This is by no means an all inclusive list. These are just games that I personally played that fit the criteria.
You could have said the orange box and saved yourself a couple bullets.
If only I could play subnautica for the first time again. Such an incredible atmosphere. Another one of my favorites is Hollow Knight.
Outer Wilds
Inscryption
Expedition 33
Expedition 33
Woah. Would you really put Expedition 33 in the same class as the other two? This is the highest indirect praise I’ve seen of the game.
absolutely!
it’s of course a very different game from the other two but brilliant nonetheless
i dislike turn based combat, i dislike jrpg, but Expedition 33? i adore. the world building, the story, the voice acting- are absolutely incredible. It’s one of those lightnings in a bottle that suddenly appear out of seemingly nowhere
I would too. It’s just really well crafted world building , story, and side content. There’s so much to do and all of it feels fun.
Really? I’ve seen Clair Obscura praised as a masterpiece.
I heard of people liking it, but imagined it was good for its genre like BG3, or Bloodbourne.
Putting it next to those other two makes it seem like everyone should play it regardless of their tastes.
Yes. The story is gut-wrenching, the world is rich and engaging, the gameplay is interesting. If I had one complaint it’s that the rare platforming segments don’t quite work… but being a masterpiece isn’t about perfection, it’s about impact, and Clair Obscur hits like a hydrogen bomb.
man i tried so many times and couldn’t get into outer wilds. it’s so fucking boring to get started that when things start getting even remotely interesting I’m already checked out. the game’s all “here’s a bunch of threads, which one do you want to pull” and I’m like “I don’t care”
Outer Wilds is best started on rainy evenings around late summer, it took me a couple of tries to get into it as well, i bounced off at least 2 times. but the 3rd time it grabbed me and now it’s my all time favourite game.
basically, don’t stress it :) it’s a brilliant game and honestly after you finish it one day you’ll long for the time when it was still ahead of you as you can only play it once for the first time
I love Outer Wilds. I’ll never forgot the moment of resignation when the all too familiar music starts playing only to realize, Oh no, it’s quite different this time.
The DLC though… not for me. It’s like a completely different game, different genre, with the only thing in common being the looping. I started feeling like such a chore that I just installed some mods to blaze through it and at least see the conclusion.
Chrono trigger
The announcer at gay bingo knows someone that named their kid Chrono. :(
I need to know what gay bingo is.
Imagine straight bingo turned gay
It’s the same as regular bingo except the announcers are drag queens and they dance between rounds. It’s awesooommeee
Terraria, amazing game that is still supported to this day, best 5€ I’ve spend on a game.
Half life and half life 2
Minecraft
deleted by creator
Microsoft has continued improving the Java Minecraft. I can’t see a reason to complain.
I don’t really know Minecraft before the acquisition. Is it really that much different?
Secret Friday updates used to drop with new features that weren’t documented and just got to explore and find them.
I remember updating singleplayer to find cacti added and placing a bunch under a railway tunnel to stop mobs. (They updated the physics to break them when adjacent to another block patch or two later)
- Removed Herobrine
Neato. Thank you!
vintage story better
A videogame that was made with complete love and devotion to the medium, made with talent and sincerity, and is a pinnacle of everything it stands, something that will stand the test of time…
And nobody mentioned Stardew Valley? I spent too long looking for it and didn’t find a single mention of it. Absolute mastery of its genre, an incredible amount of dedication spent by the developer listening to the fans, and I can’t imagine it not still holding up 10 years from now, or even 20 years from now.
Baldur’s Gate 3 is great, I love it, but there were so many performance issues with the game even with top tier hardware, and the game was borderline unplayable for others due to these issues. I have a little bias since my save didn’t sync across devices with the steam cloud and I have to start all over. Love the game, but I just can’t believe Stardew Valley isn’t even mentioned.
Terraria I feel would be closer as stardew valley is a one man job. Terraria grew as a vision that hasn’t really strayed beyond, but every update instead chisels the stone more. It is a game that took castlevania/mario inspirations and honed it into a perfect conception of 2d sidescrollers but with a liberty. (Akin to stardew being the first real open farming sim)
Redigit did amazing on the original SMBX fangame. Basically took the concept, and removed constraints. You can see the differences in development ethos as new people came on and really created a diverse game. It is so groundbreaking in their conformity that most can only compare to Minecraft, something essentially extradimensional to terraria.
Imagine being so baller you get compared to a game that puts you in control of shaping the world around you. When terraria is a game that predominantly shapes you around the world. Eventually even adding lore to these shapes it forms out of you.
Are you the summoner? The fisher? The knight? The archer? The farmer?
You will be all at some point in your journey of improvement. You will don every hat and for it you will be able to reflect back on your next life and proceed with new knowledge. The Belmont’s curse is never over, and this is our only solace.
I kinda feel like Stardew is incomplete, I want to know more about the world, the lore. I also wish that I could have more time in a day to complete what I set out to do.
Not every game needs an endless depth of lore that only those without jobs or have other things that fill up their days can dive into. Stardew Valley is a farming simulator, it doesn’t need hundreds or thousands of years of history for you to study up on, and thank the dieties it doesn’t. It meets the prompt provided in the original post.
Not bagging on people who enjoy deep lore in games, you do you, but I only get about 1-3 hours a week to play so that shit is not for me anymore. I need a game I can very easily pick up, get some shit done, and be okay putting it back down again before not too much time is up.
You can add layers to the lore; Minecraft as the first layer, Mass Effect as the second and Warhammer 40k as last. It takes as much time as the last though. But it doesn’t go the extent of all of those. I think Mass Effect did pretty well in that regard
You might be interested to know that concernedape’s new game haunted chocolatier will be set in the same world.
