/games/ - Games

So we've recently had a spate of games come out in the old CRPG style which directly follows pen-and-paper or tabletop RPG rulesets. In many ways, this can be very clunky, especially in comparison to systems that were made specifically for video game RPGs. For instance, I would argue that mana systems are way more natural and fluid for video games than a daily-usage resting system. In a way, it makes me wish they would go back to using classic video game systems instead of using pen-and-paper or tabletop rulesets.

HOWEVER, there is a weird slippery slope effect I don't quite understand. The moment you start moving away from these pen-and-paper/tabletop rulesets, you quickly start hurtling towards the total annihilation of all RPG flavor, like these archaic rulesets made for a different medium entirely are somehow holding back total enshittification. Racial traits are done away with and races become entirely cosmetic, wizards have their magic systems and spells whittled down to nothing until they're little more than a particle effect turret. Priests and clerics might have it the worst though, because I can't think of ANY game that gives the priest/cleric class any kind of religion system that isn't being forced to by some kind of pen-and-paper or tabletop ruleset.

Why is this? Why does it seem to be so hard for developers to have both modern video game RPG mechanics AND all the little things that give RPGs their fantasy and flavor?

I wish there was a Communist fork of Liberal Crime Squad, which is a game created by the Dwarf Fortress guy Tarn Adams way back during the Bush Era which has had multiple forks, but none which change the fundamental liberal pretenses. LCS is basically about building a network of clandestine cells to oppose an Arch-reactionary government, but it is fundamentally framed in terms of US liberal politics, which reveals its contradictions and ideological flaws. Tarn Adams also says he intended it as a GTA-style satire rather than something truly critical of the USA but I don't really believe that. I think he is "hiding his power level" which radlibs tend to do, to the extent that they have a power level at all. Someone made an update in 2024 that can be played in a web browser and posted it to the Dwarf Fortress forums, and while in some senses it updates it culturally from the Bush era, it still is fundamentally based on the same ideological pretenses.
https://www.jonathansfox.com/lcs-new-age/

Diagetic huds are the coolest thing ever when you take damage and they glitch out. They should be appreciated. I think the best hud ever was in Republic Commando, no hud has ever felt as immersive as that IMO. Outer Wilds has an amazing one too. HALO is really classic.

What are your favourite diagetic HUDs and UIs in 1st or 3rd person games?

This was the last good cod game
>but mw2
thats when the blockbuster action flick rot started affecting the series
>but mw remake
decent remake but the legacies of nu cod affects it.

Total War has deteriorated to such an absurd fucking degree they make good ideas shitty in practice every new game. i entered the TW fanbase quite late (2016) but despite that i find myself playing mostly older games, shogun 2, Attila and occasionally Napoleon. i LOVE the ideas Troy put foward having more resources has always been an obvious expansion for TW, being able to switch between fantasy and historical is also a very good idea considering the many mythical creatures they could've/havd added. and yet despite all of this Troy is fucking shit because the core fundamentals of TW have degraded to such an extent it's just a worse game. Morale is utterly useless and broken, units can survive until they have 5 men in them, literally what's the point of tactics? why flank? battles are now only decided on who has the better men. Shogun 2 and Napoleon have by far the best morale system, despite Attila using the Rome 2 system i still find it quite good (at least for the early game). shit even fantasy TW should be awesome and instead all units feel the exact same, how do you even do that? you have limitless opportunies yet 90 percent of the roaster serves the same function. i have lost all hopes on those faggots.

Some say that the golden age of gaming was the 80s, 90s or 2000s but I say that the real golden age of gaming was the 2010s during the RPGMaker boom. Sure, it was 2D but it wasn't monetized to fuck with P2W battle pass bullshit or paying $80 (Not counting DLC) for a game you don't even own and can literally be taken from you at any time.

I’m sick of endless grinding and new content and updates and loot boxes and leveling and ranked matches and micro transactions.

Obra Dinn rocked my world. I haven’t played a game that reminded me of the magic of the medium in years until pic related. Just finished Dredge and it was a cute little experience.

I’d like this thread to be for games that can be finished in a few days and leave an impact. Like when you look at a book on the shelf you’ve read and go ‘oh yeah, that was great’. I want to go through my steam library and not just see slop, I want to see something closer to art.

Recs, please!

I've had this idea in my mind for a few years to make a strategy game about organizing labor unions and worker-owned cooperatives, but I'm not really sure how to make it FUN and RADICALIZING for both KIDS and ADULTS. thoughts?

When he was diagnosed with BPD he made the decision to step away from the internet and work on himself. The people who donated to his patreon did so because they liked him and wanted to see him improve. And those that couldn't support him anymore, stopped. That's all that happened. He didn't and doesn't owe anyone anything, especially not a shitty movie that would not have made any sense to make since he didn't do any of the shitty "lore" stuff in any of his videos like Shitkara did.

It's ironic and a bit sad that the Wolfenstein revival, the game about how tired, cliche and meaningless killing Nazis is was so successful they had to make more games about it and even a TV show now. In TNO the world is one that is far past lost with characters who are very tired who kill Nazis by the thousands yet there's never any less of them and their final act will amount to nothing major really. BJ's a power fantasy character but it's a burden on him to be forced to live and perpetually fight the same foe to no real gain until he's finally allowed to die as this type of shooter fully had by 2014. Then TNC and Younbloods fuck it up and make it about saving da world and a Nazi slaying adventure, even BJ got his head and body fixed guys we're gonna win and spend our entire lives fighting which is really cool and not a source of existential dread at all.

I get that western politics since 2016 is what made a game just about killing Nazis seem fun again I just wish it didn't come at the expense of what I think is best FPS campaigns of the 2010s which was an excellent exploration of the genre.