Steam Deals and Digital Sales

I picked them all up to see what I had been missing (friend told me they were "just like Dungeon Keeper 2".) couple of years back....

At best they are a pale imitation. And not on the good side of pale.

Dandai said:

I made it about 10 minutes in Dungeons 3 before I uninstalled it. I don’t even know what the actual gameplay is like because the cut scenes and “plot” was so over the top and derivative that it was clear the rest of the game would be just as phoned in.

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I mean it's just nonstop pop culture references so it's not very creative, but it's so over the top that I still thought it was pretty funny.

Dandai said:

I made it about 10 minutes in Dungeons 3 before I uninstalled it. I don’t even know what the actual gameplay is like because the cut scenes and “plot” was so over the top and derivative that it was clear the rest of the game would be just as phoned in.

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yeah, Dungeons 3 is a total piece of shit. I dont even recommend for free.
Terrible, terrible 4th wall breaking narrative, jokes.
Extremely shallow gameplay.

The entire campaign is an extended tutorial too. its one of those games, where you never are just let loose. every mission is a preset with express use of the new units it trickles you.


War for the overworld is the true successor to Dungeon keeper. but, also a bit too much of a nostalgia degree. it doesn't innovate much, or have modern graphics.

I haven't expected all of that about Dungeons 3. Haven't tried it yet, but might one day if I get really bored.

Blair Witch is a fine game. Played it a couple of months ago on xbox game pass. Loved the atmosphere, especially during the night. Great sound that brings up anxiety a bit. But yeah, too much walking around and searching where to go and what to do.

Nioh @ $17 if you have not played it yet. Ninja / Samurai themed Dark Souls. Kind of like Sekiro.

Tyranny, isometric RPG.

Death's Gambit, a 2D RPG / Metroidvania that is supposed to be good.

BrotherWu

pharmakos said:

I am on disability (for years now sadly) and often daydream about what I would do with all this free time if I had the attention span for video games that I had as a child. I used to bust out multiple 50+ hour playthroughs of every new RPG that came out in the 90s and early 00s. Now, I still haven't beaten Final Fantasy 7 Remake. If you had told my child self that I would leave FF7R on the shelf for months, I would have kindly asked you to quit feeding me such a line of bullshit haha.

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Curious, what stops you? You get bored? Can't sit for that long anymore?

I'm similar, my attention span has gone to shit with video games. However, these days I only have 8-10 hours a week to play so I'm gung ho for it since it's so infrequent.

Dom said:

A good headset has helped my gaming focus a lot. Otherwise, I get distracted by every random noise. Being able to know when you're in a mood for a specific type of game helps a lot as well. Trying to play an action game when your brain just wants to chill and puzzle something out isn't going to work.

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I'm not sure if I've ever known my brain that well. Lol

Dom said:

It has taken me 7 years or so of just staring at my game library and installing games only to uninstall them 10 minutes later to figure mine out, and I still fall for a lot of it. It didn't really start clicking for me until I stopped trying so hard, and became willing to abandon a game regardless of my progress in it. This past week it has been Shadow of War, but I can already tell that I need to start on something a little less frantic in game pacing. The important thing is to not worry about abandoning the progress, or whether or not I'll be able to pick it back up at a later time.

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Funny, I gave up on shadow of war a few months ago too and finally uninstalled recently. Like 20-30 hours in and I realized I was pretty over the gameplay.

Playing Hades right now which is awesome and finally started back on the AC series with AC2 (gonna struggle through this one...)

I also just played through sleeping Dogs and finished it last week,that was a good game.

BrotherWu said:

I have become very impatient with new games. A lot of them look interesting and I load them up and end up deleting them within 30 minutes of play or, if I keep them, I don't finish. The fun/playability band is pretty narrow for me now. Too many games are just too clunky, incomplete, boring, repetitious. Also, a big part of it are the number of games that are exciting ideas, come out in EA, and then use that as an excuse for years on end. Jaded I guess.

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I don't think it's so much you being jaded as the landscape has changed. Growing up the target audience was everyone and the key factor was fun. You had to make a compelling game, that was fun and enjoyable with long time staying power.

We are now in an age of bean counters and corporate giants, where the key factor is addiction and money. Now these companies cater to a target audience that will get them the most return on investment. That's why so many Diablo style games are available and more dev time and focus is put towards micro-transactions and loot mills.

Some gems make it through like your Half Life, God of War, Witcher 3, etc. but we're basically stuck in a rut where the only games being made are Souls-like, diablo-like, loot treadmill addiction based games. This is easily spotted by looking at the top of Twitch, nothing substantial with good story ever makes it to the top. Hell, I thought Metro:Exodus was a fantastic game and I never once heard someone come up to me and talk about how good it was, most didn't even know it existed. Our only real options are indie based studios and many of them end up making the same style games or die an early death due to putting out a shit EA title when they should have left in the oven a little longer.

To put it simply, we are a dying breed. They've figured out how to exploit peoples addictions and they will target that audience (luckily those games don't do it for me). The sad part is I don't see it ever changing due to how much money is involved, otherwise they would have already banned loot boxes and the like.

Hekotat said:

I don't think it's so much you being jaded as the landscape has changed. Growing up the target audience was everyone and the key factor was fun. You had to make a compelling game, that was fun and enjoyable with long time staying power.

We are now in an age of bean counters and corporate giants, where the key factor is addiction and money. Now these companies cater to a target audience that will get them the most return on investment. That's why so many Diablo style games are available and more dev time and focus is put towards micro-transactions and loot mills.

Some gems make it through like your Half Life, God of War, Witcher 3, etc. but we're basically stuck in a rut where the only games being made are Souls-like, diablo-like, loot treadmill addiction based games. This is easily spotted by looking at the top of Twitch, nothing substantial with good story ever makes it to the top. Hell, I thought Metro:Exodus was a fantastic game and I never once heard someone come up to me and talk about how good it was, most didn't even know it existed. Our only real options are indie based studios and many of them end up making the same style games or die an early death due to putting out a shit EA title when they should have left in the oven a little longer.

To put it simply, we are a dying breed. They've figured out how to exploit peoples addictions and they will target that audience (luckily those games don't do it for me). The sad part is I don't see it ever changing due to how much money is involved, otherwise they would have already banned loot boxes and the like.

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One more thing, I played FF 1, 2, 3 and Chrono Trigger all before I finished high school. Why in the hell would I need to play all the derivative trash that has been produced since that time when they are all trying to emulate or outright copy those games?

I will still put 100+ hours into a game (albeit, slower than when I was in high school) if it is compelling and original. Witcher 3 proved this point and Path of Exile continues to do it when the leagues don't suck.

You're right, though, that most games these days are built to exploit short attention spans or to loot box their way into riches instead of just making games that people buy to play because they are simply great experiences.

I think theres a metric ton of games for any genre you wish really. Save a few "dead" genres. Like I was asking about dungeon crawlers, after being left a little empty with bards tale/solastia.

And honestly, I think its that large number of games. Back when we were kids, games cost more, there were fewer, and were harder to get in general. DRIVING to a store?! rentals then showed up, and died. gamefly. Now, we have steam and game pass. I

I got a 3 month sub to gamepass last week..
Deep rock galactic, it lurks below, forager, carrion, vambrace cold steel, wasteland 3 all played in like a week. (got ori 2, dead cells, and frost punk also lined up.)

deep rock galatic made it about 3 hours, before saying, nope, I dont like this. Vermintide is way better.
it lurks below 1 hour maybe. carrion 2.. vambrace 2.. all pretty quick, nope this isn't fun.

Forager was pretty solid. zelda survival cookie clicker. burned out at the end, it needed more dungeons/bosses.

But I blew through a bunch of games, because there is a ton of competition, games I COULD be playing that I enjoy. no need to keep playing something thats just "ok".

Even my steam library. Some games got on sales, others, paid for... But if I don't LOVE it, I have a good 20 games on there, I have not played yet.. or others I want to buy/try..
Valfaris. was ok. might come back to it.
outer wilds. a couple days, but quickly got sick of the shitty controls, and trying to get anything done.
lords of Xulima, some good ideas... some really shitty ones. couldn't justify continuing.
So I noped out of them, and played something else.

I think the bar of whats good is just higher in most cases. and we've had so many experiences we are just chasing that all time high, or perfect blend of games, that doesn't quite exist... like me searching for that perfect survival colony base builder.