Kairo
Depressing, isolating tone piece that made me cry a little.
Baldur's Gate
The Skyrim of 1998; dense, engrossing and liberating.
Morrowind
The Skyrim of 2002. Or perhaps Skyrim was the Morrowind of 2011. Alien, immersive and oh-so-pretty with the right mods.
Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc
Oft-forgotten AAA counterpart to the beloved Psychonauts, a playful action romp with characterful design and pitch-perfect pacing. Also: Actually FUN. Just don't forget that cliff-jumping technique.
Dawn of War: Dark Crusade
BOSS, WE'Z GETTIN' SHOT UP. The meatheaded, explodey RTS you never knew you wanted. Tip those toy soliders onto the carpet and make explosion noises while you throw them around. The army painter mechanic is something special, even to this day. Take a second to admire the Dreadnaught walk animation.
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Also,
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Darwinia / Multiwinia
Competitive Lemmings in 3-D. Worms en masse. A streamlined RTS that anyone can pick up and play and be swearing at friends over within minutes. The low-fi, polygonised aesthetic isn't seen very often. The first game is innovative and quite touching, but I am of the unpopular opinion that the multiplayer expansion was a marked improvement. I also shook Chris DeLay's hand this one time
Aquaria
Underwater Metroid with art by That Guy Who Made Spelunky (but before he made Spelunky). Good sountrack, some very freaky art that takes full advantage of varied ocean ecology, and unusual dogfight-style combat. Cutesiness is well-employed to leave you off-guard. Also features the most amazing spoilerific Twist That Changes Everything that causes you to completely recontextualise, of all things, the soundtrack. Guaranteed to be the least faggy game about a magical singing mermaid princess you'll ever play.
Path of Exile [Free-to-Play]
Thought of by some as "the real Diablo III", a hack 'n' slash that pretty much neccessitates the creation of a mechanically distinct playstyle. A game that asks you to make a thousand tiny decisions about how you want to improve your character, and still makes each one feel fairly siginificant. Which passive node? Which passive jewel? Which skills? Which support gem in which socket in which item? Organically grow and refine a blasphemous murder machine. Alternatively, try Titan Quest which is drastically simpler but still delivers good, clean fun.
Bastion
Probably don't need to introduce this one. Beautiful art, excellent acting, nice writing and a lovely narrative gimmick thrown on top of punchy, moreish combat with a healthy range of highly distinct and personal playstyles. Personally recommend the pistols and the hammer, or the shotgun if the hammer is too vanilla. Well worth the New Game+, challenge modes and New Game++ (all idols on).
And as of yesterday, Factorio
Are you the kind of guy who loves to make games play themselves? You summon minions, arm yourself with homing lasers, build turrets and set waypoints in service of being able to sit back and drink coffee while your digital underlings do the heavy lifting? This is that concept, put front and center. Start off digging up rocks with a rusty shovel. Finish up with a sprawling, smog-shrouded, nature-destroying eyesore of an industrial empire, all ticking and flowing and endlessly consuming in service to your greed. If you ever felt sad that Hand of Odd was scrapped, this is the closest you'll get to the Glukkon experience. Bite the bullet and build trains early, they're fun when you get the hang of them.
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I like to think it's quite a diverse list. All worth a Google, if nothing else.
I don't know why these got longer as I went. Guess I'm just waking up a bit.
Last edited by MeechMunchie; 04-10-2016 at 05:33 PM..
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