There was so much other controversy with that game that I didn’t even hear about the AI. Gross.

Manny Bothans and Dustin Echoes, the two pillars of Star Wars and Halo lore

It’s not just about dopamine/cope either. Knowing that people saw the state of the world they lived in, and came together to make good art anyway, is good for the soul. It reminds us that there is still good in the world worth fighting for.

It’s easy to forget that when algorithms show us the worst and stupidest of humanity every day for peak engagement.

I suppose it looks fun, but I always preferred games that didn’t lock you into official servers like DRG and TF2. Hopefully this isn’t too much of a derail from the question being asked :).

How they treated professional Melee and especially Project M was the moment I realized Nintendo was just another out-of-touch company. So many indie devs would kill for fans that passionate, let alone a modding scene that robust. Nintendo threw it all away.

Edit: and that ignores the graveyard of fan games Nintendo has killed. AM2R, Pokémon Uranium…

Very true. Sadly game dev is a risky endeavor at the best of times. Steam/other storefronts are very noisy environments for devs with little spare change for marketing. On the flipside, digital distribution and storefronts mean that it’s way more feasible to self-publish than it was twenty or thirty years ago. At least, as far as I’m aware. I know there were standouts like Cave Story in the early days.

Some YouTube videos came out that launched both into wider discussion. Both never had proper sequels or successors, so they stand as unique experiences even twenty years later. I don’t say this to diss modern Bethesda, but that they are both distinct enough from Oblivion and Skyrim to have staying power in their niches.

Daggerfall Unity makes that game playable and smooth on modern hardware, and Morrowind modding projects like Tamriel Rebuilt and Project Tamriel (just released an Anvil expansion!) bring in new and old fans alike. OpenMW does for Morrowind what Unity does for Daggerfall, although stock GOTY Morrowind still runs fine IIIRC.

AAA may be all but dead, (so far gone that even E3 died) but indies have been in a perpetual golden age since Shovel Knight and Undertale came out. And if boomer shooters and Morrowind/Daggerfall can have a modern renaissance, it can happen to other games/genres too.

I bought it on GOG and it worked out of the box, but I might just be lucky.

Fallout New Vegas, finally getting around to playing it!

Ah yes, the crown jewel of the Ouya!

In my experience with TF2, many popular community servers have common-sense rules like no slurs, cheats, etc. The great thing about a player-run server is that, if you want, it can be stricter than official guidelines, as Valve for example is pretty hands-off beyond the obvious in-game cheats. It allows pockets of the community to shape the experience they want to have more adeptly than official servers ever could.

Oh, whoops. That’s what I get for skimming :).

If you found HL1 dated, there’s a good remake in source: https://store.steampowered.com/app/362890/Black_Mesa/

Even as a purist (HL1 is my favorite FPS period), I love how Black Mesa handles the source material. It’s on sale for $5 right now too. Besides Valve’s other games, check out F.E.A.R (2005), Doom series and the Bungie Halo games.

Especially considering that a particular Final Fantasy game has one of the most famously spoiled twists. You’d think they of all people would know.

If you want to try an FPS, the original Half-Life is amazing (if visually dated), and was designed to ease the player into the experience as opposed to something like Doom or Dusk that throws you into the action without any tutorials. I’m biased though, Half-Life is my favorite FPS of all time lol.

It goes on sale for around $2 regularly, which is a nice bonus. I second the Portal and Stardew recommendations of others too.

Check out Tamriel Rebuilt too! It’s a mod to add the mainland that, while incomplete, already has 100s of quests. Good quality control too.

Elder Scrolls 3: Morrowind lets you fly around, jump over whole cities, and kill most NPCs with one high powered spell. It’s a very unique game, but if it clicks with you there’s nothing quite like it. Vibrant modding scene too.

The base game is certainly playable, but if you want modern resolutions and some vanilla-friendly bug fixes OpenMW is an open source recreation of the engine, there’s instructions on their website.

Civ 3 had some killer modern music.

The Mombasa Streets music made me stop in my tracks a couple times.