I'm a fan of _, so please recommend more like _!

treefroggy

Syzygy I’m still on armored core one, trying to get over the fact that the first mission has me murdering squatters right off the top. The first game, the first mission, and already the irony is too much. 🤣

notthetoilet

This one is a bit abstract. There’s a mechanic (?) that has really hooked me twice - I find it hard to describe, so I’m just gonna word soup it. The two games are Disc Room and Super Smash Bros. Melee, and it relates to time trials, sort of. I’m no speedrunner and I’ve never really been able to enjoy time trials in general.

In Disc Room, progression is based on your level completion times, but it’s an aggregated total time, eg. Level 5 unlocks when the cumulative completion times of levels 1-4 are under a minute. This makes me feel like shaving a half second on a run is actually worthwhile and it also reminded me of a memory in the distant past.
In Melee, in order to unlock the arbitrary Lon Lon Milk trophy, you had to beat the target test minigame with each character, and your record times have to combine to less than 25 minutes. This activated my brain chemicals, big time. I figure racing games probably have plenty of mechanics like this, but I don’t play them much (and only with friends, usually).

Quick restart times probably had a lot to do with it also. Any ideas appreciated, but just typing this all out was a pretty good scratch, to be honest.

Jonks

notthetoilet Not quite what you’re after but one of my favorite things about Goldeneye 64 was that every level had a cheat code you could unlock if you beat it in under a certain time, on a certain difficulty. It was a neat way to add replay value to the single player.

Also, I haven’t played it yet but my understanding of the recently released game Sifu is that there’s a trophy for beating the game under a specific age. You get older when you die but you can replay old levels to beat them at a younger age. So not time trial by the clock but time trial by your character’s age.

wickedcestus

notthetoilet yeah i love this kind of thing because if you totally nail one level and then only have to do passably well on the rest. takes a lot of pressure off from having to perfect everything. i am 100% sure that i’ve played another game with this exact progression but I’m totally blanking right now on what it was. i will try my best to remember!

edit: upon reflection i’m pretty sure it was one of the Trials games. either HD or Fusion.

Samograj

I like how NPC react to elements of story in Deus Ex.
What i mean is that many NPC characters talk about past events and game reacts to even small things like taking down friendly Unatco soldier during mission 1.

Also i played count lucanor that has cool setup for story that there is one clear goal and “hub world” that we can do in many orders.

I haven’t seen both of these things in many games so i whould be happy to see how it looks in different titles.

exodus

Okay I think this is probably the thread for this. I’m looking forward to getting a couple high budget but underperforming games when they inevitably become $20. Right now, that’s:

Stranger of Paradise. Everyone stopped talking about this after it came out. People liked the chaos stuff, they liked the goofy story, they liked the hat. I think they didn’t really like anything else about it. So that’ll be fun to pick up for $20 soon.
Ghostwire: Tokyo. Worse Maken X with nicer graphics and nothing to do, is what I’m hearing. Definitely a hot candidate for a $20 pickup soon.

what other new, big budget games have come out that have a little something interesting going on but which definitely did not make a splash? Kind of like how everybody bought Sunset Overdrive for $5 ten years later.

Venus Emperor

exodus Does Control count here? pretty much nobody talks about that one anymore but it’s pretty damn cool

穴

exodus I just started Recore and it has been enjoyable so far. I think it perfectly fits your description.

The only downfall is that it is only available for Xbox one and PC and i believe you don’t use neither of those platforms to play games

Updog

exodus ive been kind of intrigued by elex 2 for this reason. Its A big weird rpg with a jetpack and everyone seems to dislike it. Cant vouch for it but could be interesting.

exodus

Ah, but that was also super successful in its time. I’m more talking stuff that’s $60 right now but is about to be $20 forever because nobody bought it at $60 - like what happened to Balan Wonderworld!

exodus

That totally does fit the criteria! I’ll eventually get an xbox series X probably, so I’ll put that in the ole brain for when that happens.

KingTubb

My wife and I really like playing games together, but she finds using a controller or actually playing a video game very daunting. The games that we’ve “played” together are:
Disco Elysium (twice, actually)
Return of the Obra Dinn
The Witness (We didn’t finish this one)

I’m looking for a game with logic puzzles, something with a decent enough narrative or fleshed out world, and isn’t packed full of lots of deep mechanics or active playing. Obra Dinn and Disco were pretty perfect, The Witness kinda sucked if I’m being honest. The witness was a lot of her wanting me to look at a certain thing or go a certain way without me understanding what she meant.

Edit: I forgot this caveat: I stream from my PS5 in my office to the living room so we can be comfortable. So something where latency will not be an issue

Gaagaagiins

KingTubb Serious answer not being traded for under the table points in the ongoing forum game, but I think if you could appreciate an experience like Disco Elysium together, Pathologic 2 might actually be a real interesting time.

◉◉maru

KingTubb You seem to have a fun relationship!

Her Story is amazing for non-gamers as its interface, logic and even visual style are pretty much equivalent to browsing on Youtube. I heard very mixed things about 12 minutes but it aims for the same kind of audience. Papers, Please might also be fun but take into account that the time pressure might lead to arguments.

Totally different genre(s) but I also strongly recommend sharing Joy-cons on Snipperclips and Heave Ho on Switch. Cooperative games, no time pressure, controls are super simple and – in both cases – an experienced player will start pretty much on common ground with a complete beginner to videogames. Snipperclips is about logic and team work. Heave Ho is more about coordination and physics but pretty incredible.

KingTubb

Gaagaagiins

yeso
Thanks for the recommendations! Pathologic 2 looks pretty cool… I think it would not float my wife’s boat tho. Too scary. But I might pick it up and see if she vibes, if not I’ll just play it on my own.

80 Days could probably work! We actually steam to a mac mini when we play, so airdropping is a very realistic possibility

Edit: I have a pretty decent gaming computer that can handle just about anything too, so we can run stuff on that as well. We did our first playthrough of Disco and Obra Dinn in the office.

yeso

yeah Pathologic 2 could work quite well if you’re steering the controls and your #wife is making dialogue and course of action decisions. Once you get a sense of the scope and structure it would be a good time (assuming it runs ok on the PS5, which is still sort of an unknown)

I’d also strongly recommend 80 Days if lite pc gaming is an option, or airdropping it in the tv if you have an apple device

captain

KingTubb Much as I am curious to resolve the Will It Run On PS5 question I must also advocate PCthologic 2

Have you tried Baba Is You? I feel like playing it with someone else would drive me crazy but your case may be different

I don’t think Dishonored would be good for this type of play at all, but if you have not already and plan to play Dishonored 2 at some point, there is one specific puzzle I think you’d both have fun solving for 30 minutes…

serious answer not being traded for under-the-table social capital (which I would be trading to… myself): HAVE YOU CONSIDERED TRICO THE LAST GUARDIAN???

Puzzles? check
Narrative? well… no
Fleshed out world? ………no, but visually rich/evocative
There’s a big cute animal
Isn’t packed full of deep mechanics or active playing? Play is moderately active but I don’t think mild latency would kill it

The witness was a lot of her wanting me to look at a certain thing or go a certain way without me understanding what she meant

It is fascinating to me that The Witness really is difficult to talk about despite knowing what you’re doing (what are puzzle types called? how do you describe the actions you perform? “tweet tweet” “oh ok up down down” “what?” “put the dot there!” “where? there??” “no, there!”)

Gaagaagiins

Speaking of which I’m going to put something in the Helpline related to getting games on to devices

KingTubb

◉◉maru Her Story could be a good one. 12 Minutes could be pretty good. I know some people have trashed that game for some of it’s theming and the performances of the cast, but we don’t mind dark, even if it can get eye-rollingly edgy.

Papers, please would either put her to sleep or we’d get into a fight. Plus I’ve already played through it, so I would be doing that annoying thing where I give her a side glance every time something wild happens in that game, which is pretty frequently… We’re heading to Europe next month, so I might sneak that one on her iPad.

Thanks!!

exodus

Updog I’m intrigued, BUT it seems like it’s very easy to die, which kinda has me already turned off. if it’s gonna be weird, it can’t be TOO punishing.

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