Recommend games for me
Here's a look at some of my favorite games. I must say pretty much anything from PS is my favorite. Ragnarok, Helldivers, Spider-Man, Ratchet and Clank, etc.
What I love: Primarily story-driven, third-person, high-fidelity, single-player games with solid fighting characteristics with simple upgrade paths. FPS are cool too. Anything with "power fantasy".
What I hate: Anything complicated that I have to scower the internet just to learn how to play. Anything with classes or numerical attributes (Strength, Vitality, etc). I know this comprises many popular games, and if you like it, I'm happy for you, it's just not for me.
Edit: no corporate trash. No Ubisoft, EA, Rockstar, Denuvo, or remote accounts.
Just in case you haven't played it, the first SUPERHOT is, IMO, quite a bit better than the second, so I'll toss that in there.
As a wilder card, I'll suggest the Batman Arkham games. I think Arkham City is probably the most well-regarded of them.
Yeah, I played them both. The original was extra sick in VR. I think I played it on the original Oculus DK.
I enjoy the Batman games as well!
SUPERHOT is the most innovative game I've played in years.
since balatro is on your list: Slay the Spire
There's enough in here aside from simple upgrade paths that I think you should try Elden Ring. Just remember if you run into something that's too hard go in a different direction.
Tried Elden Ring. Got my ass kicked by the first guy I encountered repeatedly. Tried to run away but get chased down. I don't understand the mechanics at all. Like how do you time anything when every maneuver takes 3 seconds to execute?
Since you mentioned not liking numerical attributes or things you need a guide to understand properly, I don't think you'd like Elden Ring or Dark Souls. But you might like Hollow Knight, which does away with that unnecessary fluff.
Slay the Spire: seconded.
I do like it but I just get bored very quickly walking back and forth over the same path over and over trying to figure out wtf to go.
ah, that's a lot of Hollow Knight and its sequel Silksong. A general trait of metroidvanias
Yes it's why I also didn't like the Ori games.
If you are talking about the golden knight, you meet after emerging from the dungeon: yeah, this one is really hard and you can skip him until much later.
There is a small tutorial area, that is easily missed. After spawning into a new game, there is a big hole in the ground, jump down there (I think there is a guy or a message telling you to do it) and you learn the basics about fighting and other mechanics. Also with an adequately challenging mini boss at the end.
I have no idea who it is. I'll give it another go 😅
+1 for Slay the Spire. It’s a bit different than Balatro, but to me it scratches a similar itch. It’s easy to get into but somehow I’m still not bored of it after over 500 hours. Even started a second save on mobile.
Outer Wilds. Greatest game of all time. It's a bit more puzzle and story focused than most of these, but you have portal and GRIS and I would recommend Outer Wilds to pretty much anyone.
Cool, thanks!
E: just realized I've never looked at this game bc I confused it with Outer Worlds...
Please get outer wilds it's a whole experience
Okay fine geeze
to temper their excitement, I usually love games where you have to figure things out for yourself, but that one had me completely stumped. I eventually uninstalled, with a bitter taste in my mouth because I really wanted to figure it out (and the mechanics are fun, the entire thing is lovingly crafted...). That's coming from a guy who finished most of the Myst games.
Just saying because that suggestion doesn't really mesh well with your OP statement
I hope you try it again someday! It really is a once in a lifetime experience, so if you aren't enjoying it it's a good idea to put it down and come back with a fresh start later. I would hate for someone's only experience with this game to be one of frustration and forcing yourself to play something because everyone says it's good.
I am definitely trying it again at some point, the plot is too intriguing and the sense of discovery too satisfying to give up on it. Maybe I wasn't in the right headspace or something.
Prey might be your kinda jam. I sure liked it.
Middle-earth™: Shadow of Mordor could be fun in the third-person power fantasy way. :)
Surprised not to see Horizon Zero Dawn/ Forbidden West on this list! Have you played them?
Ahh yeah, I enjoyed both! Just played Zero Dawn from GoG.
Surprised no one mentioned the Batman Arkham games or Tomb Raider reboot trilogy (2013-2018). Both are third person action games with simple, but enjoyable upgrade elements.
Arkham Asylum may feel a bit dated, but Arkham City and Knight should still feel pretty fresh. And I think the Tomb Raider games hold up well.
I also suspect you've played them, but the Uncharted series is also great.
Other mentions that fit the third person, decent-good story, and fast/fun action:
Jumping on here to give a second recommendation for Hi-Fi Rush. Game was so good i had to quit before finishing. Finally came back to it to see the ending and it was just as amazing as I thought. Very emotionally satisfying game.
I liked HiFi Rush but there was some sort of latency issue in my system and no way to compensate for it.
See i thought I had an issue like that as well (an not saying you don't at all, only anecdotal) but turned out i just suck. Playing Osu and retraining my brain to follow rhythym or atleast get back into it on a moments notice REALLY helped hifi rush click for me.
Went from D'ing every level to S'ing the finales, bosses, and endings. Not sure if it was cause it finally just clicked, I understood the rhythym, or maybe it being a different pc i also had that issue an just didn't know it lol.
Nah I remember this from the old Guitar Hero games except they had a built-in calibration. I've got a new setup now with a dedicated gaming monitor so I'll try it again.
The single-player campaign of Titanfall 2 is incredible. Short and sweet (about 6-8 hours), super fun parkour system and cool story to play. I highly to recommend to pick it up when on sale.
I had a blast playing it last year. Great suggestion, it's a 1st person story-driven power fantasy (although the story is on the simplistic side).
Isn't that an EA game?
Unfortunately, Respawn was acquired by EA, yes.
Pass, thanks
You seem to like Character Action Games so why not give the Ninja Gaiden series a go? You can emulate Ninja Gaiden Black for free on Xemu and even enjoy using save states to save yourself some frustration with unnecessary runbacks (this was removed in later entries). I think NGB is an all time classic, although it leans a little bit more into the adventure game style than later titles, that are pure action. You have some exploration, platforming and even an almost Metroidvania-like hub area you backtrack back and forth through and unlock new branches of.
Or if you want something more modern and pure high octane action you can start with Ninja Gaiden 4. More free flowing combos as opposed to specific fighting-game style strings like in previous games, but still fun. I'm only a few chapters deep but any fan of DMC or CAGs in general would enjoy it I think.
Sounds like you dislike soulslikes.
Dishonored, or maybe Deathloop? Deathloops a bit more complicated but dishonored should prep you for it. They share a lot of the same abilities, the world is just laid out different in deathloop.
Wolfenstein New Order you’re the one man army BJ Blazkowicz, mowing down nazis through linear levels. Run and gun for the most part, with story between levels.
2016 doom or doom eternal
DnD does have a lot of stats but Baldurs Gate 3 makes it fun, and it has everything else you’re looking for. I would give it a shot even if you’re stats averse
I can't get around the incredibly slow character movement in soulslikes. Like the games are all about timing but how do you time something properly when every move takes 3 seconds?
Dishonored I think I have but haven't played. I'll give that a go.
Deathloop I have played and enjoyed but unfortunately ran into issues with GoG on Linux that I couldn't be bothered to track down.
Wolfenstein NO I'll have to try as well.
Love the Doom games, esp. 2016 Dark Ages. Not sure how they got left out of my faves. Eternal I bought and then immediately returned bc it tried to force me to sign in.
Tried BG3 and I was bored to tears and incredibly confused.
Great recs, thanks!
You can spec into faster classes. In DS1, that would be scimitars, curved swords and katanas I believe. Unfortunately means looking up that kind of info online or trial and erroring a bunch of weapons.
Yeah I'm out, thanks haha
Third Person:
Mad Max
Warframe (F2P MMO)
First Person:
Mirror's Edge
Cyberpunk 2077
STALKER series
Dying Light 1/2
Gunfire Reborn
Prey
Dishonored
Vampire Hunters (kind of an FPS version of Vampire Survivors)
Good stuff, thanks!
I just picked up Just Cause 3 for like 2.99 on a steam sale and have been no-lifing it since
Kingdom come deliverance and also the second one. Solid story driven 3rd person
The Yakuza series checks most of those boxes, highly recommended. Start with Yakuza Zero.
Will do, thanks!
Have you played Days Gone or Returnal? I think they're my favorites of the recent 3rd person PS games.
I've played Returnal and not fond of games where you play the same levels over and over. Haven't tried Days Gone but I'll check it out, thanks!
Days Gone starts out like The Last of Us but for people who think wrestling is real.
But it definitely picks up later when you expand your toolkit. The horde gameplay makes this game memorable. I played on PS5 and I think the improved framerate and motion controls gave it a new lease of life.
😂 I started Days Gone. Feels very much like an older version of TLOU.
An oldie but a goodie: Rogue Trooper
Very fun 3rd person shooter based on the rogue trooper comics from 2000AD. It doesn't overstay its welcome, has solid gameplay, and holds up well overall. I think it's available on GoG.
Synthetik
Which one?
I didn't realize that there was more than one, so the first one.
Which one is the first one?
Not who recommended it but the first one is super polished and extremely fun. Also both have multiplayer coop. The second one is still in alpha but has had a lot of big updates for a few years now. It just doesnt feel as polished yet
WHICH ONE IS THE FIRST ONE
Synthetik legion rising is the first one synthetik 2 2nd one
I don't see a "legion rising". Only "ultimate" and "arena" and a bunch of DLC.
Roboquest.
Fast paced fps rogue-lite. Its got a bit of story, though it basically boils down to 'punch bots'.
https://store.steampowered.com/app/692890/Roboquest/
There are 'classes', but it's really just whatever special ability you want. And there are stats on guns, but those can mostly be ignored as you can just upgrade whatever weapon you have or like to use.
Also, nunchuck cast iron pans.
Sick, co-op is a big bonus as well!
Not 3rd person, but A Story About My Uncle is a really good action platform-puzzler. Definitely worth picking up.
An old but gold would be any Max Payne game. I only played the first one but boy, was it awesome. I think it ticks many of what you mentioned:
The only thing you may not like is the graphics.
Max Payne II holds on really well. I don't know about 3
I was going to recommend Call of Juarez: Gunslinger, but it's listed in your screenshot. Deus Ex would be great. The original is the best but Human Revolution is good, too. Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines would be good. Kena: Bridge of Spirits is also great.
If you're okay with Ubisoft, Watchdogs 1 & 2 are fun for third person shooters. First one gives you a lot of options to enter combat, you carry all weapons on you (no "weapon loadout" selection really).
Favorite feature of both games is the in-game radio, you can just listen to music and wander around the world
Edited, thank you.
It's a very limited radio though. Each station only has a few songs. At least that's how it was in 2. I just remember hearing a lot of the same songs each time I opened the music app in-game.
I prefer the game world in the second game though. Chicago is awesome, but I kinda prefer San Francisco.
The number of songs expanded as the game progressed in two, plus you can adjust your playlist to exclude songs if you want. The playlist shuffle in the first one is awful and repetitive, and there weren't multiple radio stations to choose from or radio hosts (the punk/rock station host is hilarious IMO)
metro gravity is a rhythm platformer metroidvania where you play as a gravity witch that asks the question "is it possible to be too caked up".
Clone Drone in the Danger Zone is a voxel sword fighting game with full dismemberment and a corny story. it has a campaign, a custom level editor with player-made levels, and a small multiplayer mode.
the upgrade trees is very simple and the sword fighting is neato, reminiscient of starwars jedi outcast.
if you enjoy the platforming, recommending Psuedoregalia
its a very quality platformer metroidvania that starts a bit slow and gets better as you unlock more movement mechanics.
Stardew Valley. No greater power fantasy than owning a piece of productive land
Of you say you like the PS games, maybe Ghost of Tsushima?
Good call, thanks
KCD might be up your alley, it's pretty fun if you like RPGs.
The Witcher 3 has nice combat, is 3rd person, story driven without a ton of stats and has nice graphics.
New Vegas has serviceable gunplay (it's old and not super good as a shooter) but is very good when living in its world, doing quests, etc. There are some numbers, though.
Youa said no Ubisoft, but far cry 2 and 3 are good.
Crysis 1 is awesome and I hate that cryrek COD-ified Crysis 2.
Not sure if Cyberpunk 2077 counts as corporate trash. But the main quests are a pretty good story. Combat is fun. There are upgrade trees that are a bit more complicated than CONTROL.
And as for “power fantasy” if being able to solo an entire megacorp army and win isn’t power fantasy idk what is.
There are also lots of side quests that themselves are pretty good stand alone stories.
Not at all, enjoyed playing that game but was not a favorite. I dunno who wrote the driving mechanics for the vehicles but they are atrocious. It's like driving a pendulum.
Sticking to motorcycles kinda helps a bit, but yeah...
The french all that "l'issue de skill".
BotW and TotK fit this description exceptionally well.
You are lost haha
Perhaps, but there are ways to run them :)
I don't have time to learn a new profession but thanks
What is a PS game?
Playstation
Maybe you're lost.
What're you talking about?
Commenter suggests a Nintendo game.
OP prefers PlayStation games.
Both are posting on a PC gaming community.
Do you just not realize that PS publishes games on PC?
What about uncharted? https://store.steampowered.com/app/1659420/UNCHARTED_Legacy_of_Thieves_Collection/
Anther great suggestion, thanks
Clover Pit
https://github.com/bobeff/open-source-games
That's not helpful
Looking at the DMC games, if you are into older (ps2-era) titles, DMC1 and DMC3 are pretty good, and come in a bundle with another game that shant be named. Besides there is also platinum games roster like Bayonetta, Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance or Nier: Automata. I would also recommend hi-fi rush, but afaik that still has denuvo.
There is also Ultrakill which is basically doom with a dmc-esque combat rating system
Not on PC, but if you can find discs for them, maybe the rest of the God of War games?