Video Games and Gaming Technology (In A Positive Light)
- Thread starter Ember
- Start date
Just finished What Remains of Edith Finch. Really enjoyed it. Great story, characters and setting. The protagonist is now also one of my favorite female characters in gaming. She is interesting, feminine, funny, kind, and is simply the perfect choice to tie the whole thing together. It's on sale for five bucks on Steam. Could have easily paid 20 or 30 and felt I got my money's worth.
Played through It Takes Two recently, very fun co-op adventure (though the elephant part was pretty messed up) and planning to get the studio's next game Split Fiction which comes out tomorrow.
Also enjoyed Balatro which is quite an addictive roguelike deckbuilder, it's really nailed everything from the sound design to the visual to the replayability and more.
Can highly recommend this as well, especially if you want to show people who aren't typically gamers what kind of incredible storytelling can only take place via this medium.
Also enjoyed Balatro which is quite an addictive roguelike deckbuilder, it's really nailed everything from the sound design to the visual to the replayability and more.
Can highly recommend this as well, especially if you want to show people who aren't typically gamers what kind of incredible storytelling can only take place via this medium.
I can vouch for It Takes Two. Great co-op game to play with a girl.
I've been trying out TuggoWar on steam lately. It's a PvP card game that is well balanced, not pay2win, and ridiculously fun. It's just a demo, and yet is more fun than most finished games. Highly recommended.
I've been trying out TuggoWar on steam lately. It's a PvP card game that is well balanced, not pay2win, and ridiculously fun. It's just a demo, and yet is more fun than most finished games. Highly recommended.
Overcooked 2 is a really fun co-op game. I've played it with my friends and family. I've also played games from the Jackbox Party Pack series, they're good too.
Overcooked 2 is for local multiplayer, while Jackbox Party Pack can be played over a platform like Skype or Discord. If you own a copy, all your friends can join your games, you just need to run the game locally and share your screen, and they can join though the Jackbox website.
I haven't played Overcooked 2 in a while because I never have IRL friends over anymore. The COVID hoax totally destroyed my social life, and I have been unable to rebuild it because it seems to have made everyone nasty and reclusive.
There really was a noticeable shift, where people are just not interested in meeting new people anymore. I've always been very friendly and bubbly, but it just doesn't work anymore. I'll strike up a conversation with someone at work and they'll talk a lot and appear to be enjoying the exchange, but then we exchange numbers and they just never respond to my messages on Whatsapp (I live in Latin America so everyone here has Whatsapp, literally everyone, no exceptions, it's weird), and if I invite them to some event or whatever, they're never interested. Over the last two years, I've only found two dudes who actually want to be friends, and that's with me actively putting myself out there. If I'm having this much trouble, I can't imagine what it's like for someone less sociable.
Overcooked 2 is for local multiplayer, while Jackbox Party Pack can be played over a platform like Skype or Discord. If you own a copy, all your friends can join your games, you just need to run the game locally and share your screen, and they can join though the Jackbox website.
I haven't played Overcooked 2 in a while because I never have IRL friends over anymore. The COVID hoax totally destroyed my social life, and I have been unable to rebuild it because it seems to have made everyone nasty and reclusive.
There really was a noticeable shift, where people are just not interested in meeting new people anymore. I've always been very friendly and bubbly, but it just doesn't work anymore. I'll strike up a conversation with someone at work and they'll talk a lot and appear to be enjoying the exchange, but then we exchange numbers and they just never respond to my messages on Whatsapp (I live in Latin America so everyone here has Whatsapp, literally everyone, no exceptions, it's weird), and if I invite them to some event or whatever, they're never interested. Over the last two years, I've only found two dudes who actually want to be friends, and that's with me actively putting myself out there. If I'm having this much trouble, I can't imagine what it's like for someone less sociable.
Shucks, beat me to it.
I never got around to playing the first overcooked game. I enjoyed the sequel. Did have some really frustrating stage hazards, but that leads to banter and funny moments so it was a plus for me.
Recently I've been enjoying the old Left 4 Dead games with a friend.
Vermintide 2 is probably the most up to date version of that kind of gameplay. They added a pvp mode to it that plays like LFD2 but with much better design.
This was enough to get my to dust off my Xbox.
I have been playing Girls' Frontline 2: Exilium. The story has really good worldbuilding and is enjoyable even if you're completely unfamiliar with the rest of the GFL franchise, as I am. Gameplay is interesting (basically XCOM gameplay), visuals are quite beautiful, monetization is nowhere near as aggressive as other anime gacha games (it's very easy to get everything for free), and it's not oversexualized like a lot of these types of games are. At worst there's like, bikinis if you go out of your way to purchase a summer skin.
It's a good game for a busy man, respects your time. I rarely find myself with time for "real" games anymore so I appreciate mobile games like this that don't demand too much of my time. The only real time-consuming aspect of this game is the story, which is presented in a visual novel format, but you can just skip all of it and focus only on the gameplay, if you'd like.
My only real complaints are that the initial learning curve can be steep if you care about minmaxing (I had to read an online community-made guide in order to know what I was doing), and that some of the characters are incredibly overpowered and limited time only, so there's a bit of FOMO. There are reruns but they take a long time to arrive. Suomi is so OP it's actually comical. I love her, though. She goes
It's a good game for a busy man, respects your time. I rarely find myself with time for "real" games anymore so I appreciate mobile games like this that don't demand too much of my time. The only real time-consuming aspect of this game is the story, which is presented in a visual novel format, but you can just skip all of it and focus only on the gameplay, if you'd like.
My only real complaints are that the initial learning curve can be steep if you care about minmaxing (I had to read an online community-made guide in order to know what I was doing), and that some of the characters are incredibly overpowered and limited time only, so there's a bit of FOMO. There are reruns but they take a long time to arrive. Suomi is so OP it's actually comical. I love her, though. She goes
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Frostpunk has a really great soundtrack. Highly recommend that game.
What online co-op games would you gentlemen recommend to play through with friends who live far away? The only games I own right now that fit the bill are Minecraft, Terraria, Deep Rock Galactic and Team Fortress 2. The rest of my library is single-player. I'd like to have more options. I would appreciate any recommendations.
I used to play Jackbox, but it was with a pirated copy and a while ago I decided not to pirate games anymore.
I used to play Jackbox, but it was with a pirated copy and a while ago I decided not to pirate games anymore.
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Funny I have earthbound for my snes, I don't even know how I ended up with it. It just randomly ended up in my pile of games 30 years ago....I feel like everyone has a few carts like that. I've never played it, I've fired it up a few times but just never gave it a real run.....no real reason why, just always ended up replaying something else. I'm laid up for a while after having hernia surgery, maybe I'll give it a real shot...
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Iakobos
Orthodox
Lately my friends and I have been mostly playing a lot of Age of Empires 4 co-op against AIs, it's quite fun and you can easily control the level of challenge depending on RTS skill. I also have a fairly regular Dota 2 squad which is probably the best competitive multiplayer game ever made but it's really hard to get into and only worth playing with a team of friends, the solo queue experience is borderline demonic.
If you like ARPGs Grim Dawn is solid co-op, never finished it though.
Stellaris co-op is a good bit of fun if you're into sci-fi and map-coloring campaigns. Years of DLCs though and it wants pretty long play sessions.
Divinity: Original Sin 2 is a good co-op RPG campaign, turn-based combat though so it's pretty slow-paced.
Stardew Valley and PlateUp are A+ for playing with a ladyfriend but probably not suitable for The Lads.
And here I'm still firing up GT7 once month for the "free update" and race five races. My son actually figured out how to start up my PS4 and started playing Monster Hunter World (he's 6) and now he's doing all these crazy moves while tending the garden... or when we went to the zoo today plus he's asking why our cat can't cook it's own food lol.