I always loved retro-style games, long before I learned that they're considered retro. I'm not sure what makes them so fun but they completely dominate my gaming nowadays.

Naturally, I became curious about the games that had inspired my favorite titles. I tried many of them, and eventually came to a conclusion: most of the time, retro games are nothing but a historical curiosity.

Ultima 4 has fairly unique concept but falls flat with its roleplaying feeling forced, its bland gameplay and its setting with no originality whatsoever.
Compare this to Moonring. Gameplay rivals many modern roguelikes (the classic definition, so Brogue, not Isaac), great setting that sucks you in immediately, and so so many mysteries.

Ambermoon pretends to be an open world RPG but is actually a linear RPG-lite with combat feeling more like a puzzle (and a wrong solution punishes you by 15 mins of you and your opponents missing each other every turn).

That's not to say that retro games aren't important - the modern indies are standing on the shoulders of giants. Yet I can't say that retro games worth the trouble of getting into them, compared to the polished modern indie titles.

Edit: it looks like the banner is incorrect. On the front page of steam it’s the right dates and says summer, but when I click on it to see all the sales it says spring with the dates for the spring sale. It’ll probably get fixed soon.

I bought Zelda TotK right after release for Switch 1, just to be presented with a bright, blurry game with loading screens that I, personally, couldn't live with. I retired it after about an hour, uninstalled it from my console and sold the game on eBay.

Years later, the Switch 2 released and I was hyped. Bought it on release day and had the urge to give TotK another go. This was the start of something beautiful.

This game is an absolute blast. I wasn't as hooked since Elden Ring. The map design, the sheer possibilities, the love for detail, the way the game guides you in the right direction: it's absolutely fantastic.

This game is a master piece, and on the Switch 2, the game feels the way it should have felt on the day it released.

I can not recommend this enough.

So a while back, I wanted to play Conkere bad furday. After doing some math I worked out that it was cheaper to get an Xbox One and Rare Replay, than the original game.

But now that I have Conkers, and a new box. I thought to myself. Hey isn’t this backwards compatible with 360. Which it was. But this lead me to another thought. Why deal with Ubisoft BS on PCs and their Client. Where older games force you to sign in to play them. When I could just have them on one box.

Which eventually lead me to acquiring this small collection. Total price is $155.88 CAD (before tax) and I know I overpaid for some of the later games. But it’s all on one system with no Uplay BS in my face.

Ac1 - $3

AC2 - $4

ACB - $8

ACRe - $8

AC3 - $12

ACB - $7

ACRo - $15

ACU - $10 ($7 more than i think should costs)

ACS - $13

ACC - $18 (shocked with this one)

ACOr - $20 (could’ve got it for $10 but got it on impulse)

ACOd - $20

ACV - $30 (again $10 over used)

About a year ago, I heard someone mention that Outer Wilds had a VR mod. I do have a VR setup and am an experienced VR player, so I really could experience this game for the first time in VR.

Is that reasonable or should I play it the first time with flat graphics?

(Index btw)

I was wondering if 30 bucks is a fair price for this game. I know that the port is very much bare bones and that Rockstar cheaped out on it but right now the game is selling for 40% off and I was wondering if it is worth it for this price or shall I wait more for deeper discounts? Like the summer sale is coming but I doubt the game will be even cheaper then.

Feel free to recommend your favorite games!

I wish I had listened to general fan wisdom and played Super Metroid first. Having played the original Metroid, then Zero Mission, this is my third romp in the planet Zebes, and I'm finding the game extremely redundant.

The original was a little tedious, but I absolutely loved Zero Mission. I appreciated the slightly more linear gameplay. Paired with the manga, it also had a surprisingly good story that establishes Samus as a character. In context with the manga, the Wrecked Ship segment where you lose and then regain your suit is an amazing piece of gameplay-driven storytelling.

And then Metroid II was just as interesting. A completely new horror-esque locale plus a really creepy minimalist storyline that makes you really question the orders forced on you by the Galactic Federation.

So I was expecting a lot more out of Super Metroid. So far, I'd say I'm about halfway through the game. I beat Torizo, the Spore Spawn, Kraid, and the Crocomire. Aside from a really stellar cinematic opening, there hasn't been any plot to speak of, just a nonlinear dungeon to explore without a clear path. I know that in development, Super was meant to just be a 16-bit remake of the NES Metroid game, but was later retooled to be its own game, so that might be why the story feels so barebones?

Everything feels like a rehash of the original. I looked up the wiki and all (Brinstar, Norfair, Crateria, Wrecked Ship, and Tourian) but one of the levels (Maridia) are lifted from the original game, and I've heard that one new level we get is considered the worst one. It feels like a remixed new game+ rather than a full-fledged game that stands on its own, and honestly, I'm bored. It kind of reminds me of what I didn't like about Castlevania after a while, that game after game took place in the exact same mansion.

This might seem a little unfair. Super Metroid came out first, so it might be more accurate to say that Zero Mission is just an asset flip, that it's the less original game -- which is absolutely true, but I played Zero Mission first. And nonlinearity isn't a bad thing at all and it's great for this genre, but since I feel like I've done all this before, I don't feel motivated to discover all of Super's secrets. Does it get any better, or can I skip to Fusion?

TL;DR I played Zero Mission first and read its tie-in manga. Now Super Metroid feels boring because it "reuses" all but one of its areas on the planet Zebes, and it has a comparatively barebones story. Should I keep going or skip to Fusion?

I recently finished the game Tunic, which is sort of like A Link to the Past + Fez + Dark Souls... And it's amazing!

I actually owned the game soon after release but bounced off of it due to being busy with work, picked it back up the past few weeks and finally sat down and enjoyed it. Despite looking like a straightforward and cute adventure game, it gets REALLY deep the further you go in. There's so much to discover and the game gives you just enough hints on what to do and where to go.

Tunic ticks all the boxes for me. The graphics are gorgeous, the combat is fun, the world is fun to explore and rich with secrets, and progression was very satisfying.

The most unique part of the game is that you slowly find pages of an instruction manual containing maps of areas and secrets, explanation of mechanics, and guides on how to play... except it's all written in an alien language, so you have to figure out what it's telling you by paying attention to all the pictures and context clues.

Understanding the manual is a bit rough at first but lead to so many "A-ha!" moments when you try something and it actually works. It even foreshadows future bosses and things you'll encounter before they happen which is brilliant. My best advice to someone just trying the game: Pay attention to the manual, seriously!

I won't spoil any more than that, but I really wish more people talked about this game. It's not for everybody, the game is intentionally vague and needs some critical thinking if you're not following a guide, but I think it's absolutely brilliant if you're into exploration and discovery. One of the most unique games I've played in ages.

About a year ago I picked up a copy of Dirt 4 for very little money and put it on the side to play later (it appears that rally games drop in price when they no longer feature the latest cars).

One of the environments it features is Tarragona in Spain, which is where I live. Having actually started playing it I can say that the modeling and course design for my home stages is absolutely spot on - I live in a small village halfway up a small mountain which is often used for the WRC, and the stages really do feel like my daily commute.

The car handling, progression, team management stuff, etc, is good - with the variable difficulty settings it's very accessible to casuals like me :-)

At about 3/4 completion I'd give it top marks, and I'm enjoying it a lot more than the more simulation oriented rally games.

Screenshot for context

On a note, Humble Bundle is amazing when you got loads of games at once. Owned this for years before I was in the mood to play it.

Call of Duty hasn't excited me since Blops back on the PS3. I was never into single player, and my attempt during Blops and Call of Duty 3 left me not wanting to play more.

However I was really in the mood for a WW2 shooter after my visit to a local war museum, so I thought. Hey why not. I had no expectations going in other than I wanted to play a WW2 shooter.

Starting the game up for the first time, I was impressed with the graphics and visuals. Aesthetically the game is toeing the line between realistic, and video gamey. Like on a wide shot of troops, it could be mistaken for real. Then when you see one of the handful of main characters it's like; "oh yeah, it's a game".

However functionally the first thing I ran into was the game bugs. This game came out in 2017, almost 8 years ago now. However I never realized how bad the "release now fix later" mentality was. The game endlessly crashed, and would need constant validation to work. I don't know if it's because of my rural broadband connection loosing packets. Or because the game corrupts itself. Maybe it was a Proton thing. But almost every mission I had to validate the game files for it to work.

When the game worked, though I had a good time. Shooting baddies was satisfying. The aesthetics mixed in with the gameplay was exactly what I was looking for. And the game had good variety. Though the game lost it's polish outside of the main game loop. That one flying section was awkward, same with the tanks and while the stealth sections aren't mandatory, it felt like it was.

The only other thing which didn't work for me was the story. Yea it's a work of fiction, and over the top all the time. I could suspend my disbelief and enjoy the action. Right up to the mid way point when the game pauses for long sections of time to focus on the stories "drama". This drama was there from the beginning, but I felt it was more subtle, or maybe tolerable compared to closer the end. There's also a b-plot about the protagonist's brother which was extremely predictable which I actually eye rolled when I saw it's conclusion.

With that said, I liked the epilogue, I liked the shooting, the level designs were great, and the overall story was good. I just think if you are in the mood to play some WW2 shooters that you should probably pickup an older title before this one. However if you do find this game on a discount or already in your library, I did enjoy my time with it. So if you are in the mood. It may be worth picking up.

I used to love the eery atmosphere and immersiveness of the first installment, but I remember missing these aspects from DL 2 at launch day (pirated it), but I wanna buy it at the summer sale perhaps now.

If anyone played DL 2 recently, did the game get some more immersive improvements or perhaps are there mods that can make it have a more atmospheric feeling?

I had bought Stardew Valley the other day when it was finally discounted on Steam. I couldn't play it myself because it is too much reading. Offered it to my wife. And after a little apprehension she tried it, complained about it and is hooked to it.

So now she wants to rope the children in and play multiplayer with them. But for some reason that is bugged on Steam on Linux. So I went ahead and bought it again on GOG for full price. Makes sharing with everyone easier as well.

Well played ConcernedApe, well played.

I played it on my Steam Deck, 30 FPS average with lots of audio crackling, apparently because of the CPU load. I played the game in hard mode because I was afraid survivor and grounded would break the balance.

The gameplay is great: it was insanely fun outsmarting the infected, circling around the clickers, burning the bloaters. Against those enemies, stealth really was a challenge and I had to manage my stress level (stalkers and runners were especially hard to deal with in the sewer); I'm convinced I would not be able to finish this game in permanent death as certain sequences took me 5-7 tries to do correctly (optimizing to use the least amount of gear or straight up surviving). It was really hard to aim well enough on a controller to be able to do headshot with consistency (this game with a controller and a mouse must feel like heaven to master).

Stealth against humans is way too easy though: you can easily never use your weapons and just throw a glass bottle against the wall, cleanup with a bomb or a Molotov, and you will never be punished when doing a stealthy kill if you take too long which basically means that shiv are useless for anything other than doors (I did not buy the ability to get off the grasp of clickers with shivs).

The hostage mechanic felt so cool, but I rarely used it because I felt like I couldn't afford to waste bullets because of the resource scarcity. I would have loved the game to be more punishing and to force me to spend my gear; I was never spotted and I am horrible at stealth (hello Cyberpunk 2077).

On the writing side, the game shines even more. I was so heartbroken when Sarah was murdered, when Tess sacrificed herself, when Sam turned and Henry killed himself, when Joel said horrible things to Ellie, when he murdered all the fireflies, the surgeon, Marlene in cold blood.

And that's where the game shines! It shows you this great dynamics between Joel and Ellie, this growing bond that is so precious. You despise and love Joel: you despise his lack of moral, his emotional immaturity (not wanting to talk about the hard stuff and lying to Ellie) but you understand where it comes from, you understand why the violence happened.

This constant tension, this gray area makes the game so real and gripping; you can only look with a mix of disgust and support as you're ripping your way through the enemies in the hospital with savagery.

What Joel did is unequivocally wrong and selfish but I cannot judge because I know full well I'd probably have done the same thing in this situation. Well, I'm not sure but I can see it.

This game really made me understand the complexity of moral and decision, the conflicting goals and the harshness of survival. I highly look forward to playing the sequel.

EDIT; I think the right difficulty for me is the "Survivor" one, grounded looks to hard without a mouse.

Steam had the entire Witcher series on sale for a few dollars. I bought everything for the first 3 games.

There was some discussion of it at the time, and folks seem to agree that the first one in the series sucks hard.
As that seemed to be the worst plan, I went with it.

Yes. "It's rough." I guess the engine and content have gotten some backports and extensions. I'm not sure if you could ~~play other characters besides Geralt before, but now you can~~. (EDIT ... Sorry, this seems to be BS. My bad.) They updated the graphics a lot. Its not great, but I think they fixed most of the really bad problems.

I don't know about the story. Seems pretty awful. Awkward acting. Its been fun just trying to play the damn thing.

Um ... I sort of like it. Gonna play some more now ...

In this online roleplaying world, with a gameplay reminiscent of Ultima Online and Runescape, players develop characters along a semi-classless system, though the pace of mastery hinges on their character's attributes, engaging in strategic Rock, Paper, Scissors combat through point-and-click, delving into intricate crafting systems like the notoriously complex alchemy, maintaining immersive IC roleplay, and establishing themselves by building or renting customizable castles, mansions, or houses.

Hello fellow patient gamers!

Bit US centric, but I had the day off for memorial day. I was in the mood to catch up on my steam deck wear and tear with a good round of Civ5 BNW. I have had the long term goal of beating it on deity. Did not get there and the game might be lost due to runaway civ, but slim chance of turtleing down and going for a science victory.

Any games that you are still getting use out of while you wait for sales or for something new to drop?

I bought Armored Core 6 shortly after it was released on the PS4 (one of the few games I paid for full price for). I enjoyed it very much the 1st playthrough. Stopped during my 2nd or 3rd playthrough.

Its on sale now on steam. Thinking about getting it for my steam deck, but I was wondering how different of a game it is now. Have there been any cool updates? More build options? Multiplayer still active?

How easy is it to mod on a deck? I forgot about mods!!!