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Favorite games of this generation

Discussion in 'Gaming Forum' started by Unlucky 13, May 28, 2021.

  1. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    With the PS4/XB1 era coming to a close, I thought I'd see what everyone's favorite games of this past generation were. Here is my list, which only includes games that I myself played and only includes ones that were new to this generation, not remakes, remasters or rereleases.

    All that being said, here is my top ten games that I enjoyed:

    The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt
    Assassins Creed: Odyssey
    Horizon Zero Dawn
    Dragon Age: Inquisition
    Ghost of Tsushima
    Assassins Creed: Origins
    Immortals: Fenyx Rising
    Jedi: Fallen Order
    Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
    Final Fantasy XV
     
  2. Ronnie Bass

    Ronnie Bass Luxury Box Luxury Box

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    Pong
     
  3. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    That was my first ever game when I was five years old. That's been a few generations ago.
     
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  4. invid

    invid Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Horizon Zero Dawn
    Ghost of Tsushima
    Breath of the Wild
    Abzu
    Monster Hunter World

    Off the top of my head- there's probably more.
     
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  5. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    HZD was probably the best made game that I've ever played. They just did a spectacular job with it, both technically and with the story. An absolute masterpiece. But there just wasn't quite enough to do, which is why I put the other two ahead of it. Huge hopes for the next one, though.
     
  6. invid

    invid Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    My ranking was in no particular order! If I had to rank them, I think BotW and GoT would be the ones duking it out. Lost myself in those.
     
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  7. Galant

    Galant Love - Unity - Sacrifice - Eternity

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    I'm not sure of the generation and I might have to do some thinking to figure out a list but the most memorable games that come to mind right now are:

    Subnautica (and just finished the sequel, Below Zero, which wasn't as good)
    Then going further back, Chronicles of Valkyria (haven't played the sequel yet)
    And the Tomb Raider reboots, loved the first, second was okay, need to play 'Shadow'.

    And then going further back, Assassin's Creed IV - Black Flag. Excellent game. And the most recent AC that I've played.

    Those strike me as the most memorable games.

    I will say that I recently finished BotW and it was good but, dare I say it, it wasn't as good as I was hoping. It felt very wide open and sparse at times, later on the combat against most enemies was dull, I avoided it, nothing to be gained by it, except with the Lynels which was fun for the challenge. I think ultimately, the story wasn't really there, and there was no real pressure, no real stakes. I also would have liked bigger cities/towns I think, since those gave most of the personality. Don't get me wrong, it was a good game, very well made, but I expected something more. Perhaps also because Link was void of personality and Zelda was just depressing.
     
    Last edited: Jun 4, 2021
  8. invid

    invid Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    The third of the Tomb Raider reboots was my least favorite but you may enjoy it! Talk about a leaden character- Lara Croft in that third Tomb Raider. Snore. It was fine that she was green in the first game but I never felt like she was on her way to mastering tombs by the time I finished the third game. She's always the same girl in distress sliding down a spikey mudslide or grabbing on to slippery ledges. That adds drama, I get it, but it's so predictable by the end of the third game. They're nowhere as emotionally deep as the Uncharted games either, the series they borrowed liberally from and that uses all the same tricks.
     
  9. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    I didn't play many games during the PS4/XboxOne generation.

    I would say my favorite game was Spider-man. I had a blast playing that game.

    I did enjoy Dragon Age Inquisition as well.

    And even though it is a game available on PC and an indy game, Spiritfarer is just special.
     
  10. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    Despite being an almost Playstation exclusive gamer (other than Civilization), I've never been interested in the Spiderman games.

    As for Dragon Age, there are rumors that Bioware will give some more info this month. Fingers crossed. Its been such a long and messed up journey to get to this point, and I've found it weird that most of the gaming media is ignoring anything and everything that took place before the game was officially announced. I know that I've made this rant before, but we should really be on at least DA6, if not DA7 by this point. But I'll take what I can get.
     
  11. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    Oh yea, even though I didn't finish the game Horizon Zero Dawn is almost perfect.

    I will never forget the time I ran away from some big monsters only to be ambushed by some cultists, but I was able to escape because the big monsters started to attack the cultists.

    It was also nice to play a woman instead of the normal boring male protagonists that are pretty much in every game.
     
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  12. Galant

    Galant Love - Unity - Sacrifice - Eternity

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    Anyone play RDR or RDR2? Are they worthy of the hype? Bearing in mind I'm a storyline guy. If the writing is poop or an extended cliche or it gets off on being 'dark' or there's loads of grinding I likely won't enjoy it.

    Horizon is on my radar for PC and I might revisit the AC series for Origins/Odyssey/Valhalla at some point.
     
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  13. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    Spider-Man is my favorite super hero so when they make a good game it is exciting for me. The game was a perfect spider-man game with having a good story that it is in its own universe.

    Since Bioware is owned by EA I will be surprised if DA is any good in the future. IMO, until proven otherwise that series is dead to me.

    Since you like Civilization have you been keeping up with Humankind? I played the last opendev and it was interesting. It releases in August and I am looking forward to seeing what the full game is like.
     
  14. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    Keeping an eye on it. We'll see what its like on final release. I read a long article about the differences between the two last week and I was intrigued.
     
  15. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    It has some good ideas. I am curious how the end game plays. Myself, I think civ games are a lot of fun for the first 150 to 200 turns, and then it is just a slog until I see if I win somehow.
     
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  16. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    For me, RDR has a personal record of some sort as the most hours I've ever put into a game without ever enjoying it. So many people like it, so I kept plugging away thinking it might eventually get better, and for me it never, ever did. Think GTA, but on a horse, in a desert, with almost nothing to do. Its bleak, its barren, there are very few sidequests or other activities, your gear and weapons are very limited and combat outright sucks. And for my personal tastes, all of the characters suck and are jerks.

    Having said that, I never gave the second one more than a passing thought. It looks pretty, but if its more of the same, I have no interest.
     
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  17. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    I don't disagree. I like the exploration and discovery aspect, and seeing how well of a start that I can get off to. But with the last few updates, they've made the game really slow and buggy for me, and it crashes a lot. I'm not the only person with the issue, as I've seen a lot of people complain about it online, but no one seems to have a great answer.

    I even reformatted my PC and took it back to factory settings, then installed Civ as one of the very first things I did afterwards, and the same game that played wonderfully for years is now still frustrating. So I haven't played in a while. This kind of thing is one of the reasons I don't like PC gaming. These things don't happen on the console. It works or it doesn't.
     
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  18. Galant

    Galant Love - Unity - Sacrifice - Eternity

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    If that's the case then I'll have no interest either.
     
  19. Dol-Fan Dupree

    Dol-Fan Dupree Tank? Who is Tank? I am Guy Incognito.

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    I was talking about Civ in general. I have played all civs since civ 1. I think all of them are not that fun towards the end of the game after the exploration and discovery aspect is pretty much done.
     
  20. Unlucky 13

    Unlucky 13 Team Raheem Club Member

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    I started playing Civ all the way back on the SNES, before I had a PC. And I bought Civ 2 on the same transaction as my first PC back in 1997. So I've been at it a while too. And yeah, its generally the same, though when I get a good sequence, I stick with it and see it through.
     
  21. invid

    invid Season Ticket Holder Club Member

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    Counter-opinion: they're both amazing. I think you could get away with skipping RDR1.

    Both games have a very tongue-in-cheek humor about them and the moment to moment writing is the best in the biz. As for whether you'll enjoy the gameplay, it all depends. They're at their core a GTA-flavored cover shooter with some extra bells and whistles (think Michael if you've played GTA5). You have to ask yourself whether or not you'd enjoy the ambient challenges the game presents to you which are typically scavenger hunts across the huge maps along with hunting challenges, accuracy challenges, etc.

    Environmental design in both games are phenomenal, RDR2 has sections of the map that resemble Montana, Florida, New Orleans, Washington, California, Mexico, Appalachia-US, and more. All crammed into a huge map. RDR2 is much longer than RDR1 and has a lot more "ambient" stuff to do, but there are concerns that Rockstar tried to make everything too immersive to the point it sometimes becomes laborious to play.

    I would at least try the second one. I think there's a lot of meat on the bone there and some more variety. I enjoyed my time with both. The first one is going to feel pretty old in 2021 but if you want a quicker and cheaper experience go with that one.
     
    Last edited: Jun 9, 2021
  22. Galant

    Galant Love - Unity - Sacrifice - Eternity

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    Revisiting this and I've now played and completed HZD, Shadow of the Tomb Raider, AC Origins, and most recently the first Dishonored.

    HZD is incredible. One of the best games I have ever played. It was an interesting experience. The beginning was enthralling and then once I left the beginning area to enter the wider world it went downhill. In open games I have a tendency to wander off and do side quests before returning to the main quest. Doing that I found the game started to feel sparse and the world uninteresting because I found no enjoyment or purpose in trying to hunt the wildlife. That was sad because the beginning was so promising and I was really looking forward to it. So, I made the decision to just go ahead and progress the main story. Based on the map size I though that I would soon be completing the game and that was a depressing thought. However, it was the right decision. The main quest line really opened things up and progressed character skills so that I started to engage with the gameplay more. Side quests opened up and everything just clicked. I have the version with the Frozen North expansion and completed that before finishing the main quest.

    Superb game. Story telling, graphics, music, world building, everything. There are some mechanics I would have tweaked but HZD goes onto my all time greats list.

    AC Origins, completed it but didn't revisit it. The world didn't grab me and the tasks felt too repetitive. Even the story went downhill. The way the relationship story progressed was just dumb IMO. It took away from the characters rather than adding to them.

    Odyssey and Valhalla, based on what I've heard, aren't much different so I don't think I'll be sinking the hours into them.

    AC needs a change in direction I think. 2 and 4 were the best, IMO, and they need to go those routes instead of just bigger worlds with more repetitive, grindy tasks.

    Shadow of the Tomb Raider, @invid was right. Not great. The depth of character from the first game just fell flat. I wanted to see Lara in therapy more than those tombs. And she doesn't need her big friend following her round.

    They had a real chance to take Lara in a direction that could bring her to the expansive, giant tomb exploring, mystery uncovering tomb raider of the original game.

    Sad to see another franchise failing for lack of creativity and heart.

    Dishonored was pretty dull too, and I would say too easy except that meant I got through it quickly. It seems like they were almost going for a sandbox stealth game where stealth fanatics replay the game over and over finding little tricks and getting joy out of that. No thanks. In a world similar to Bioshock Infinite the story line in Dishonored was far less interesting and not as well written. I really didn't care about any of them. The artwork/graphics were decent - that oil painting effect was a nice touch. The mechanics were smooth enough. I just didn't care for the world, seems like everyone was in despair and guilty and if the world got wiped out it wouldn't be the worst thing that could happen. Maybe HZD might grow out of the ashes! :)

    Another one I completed was Halo Infinite. I'd been playing the multiplayer, which is a great return to Halo match fun! I loved the first Halo and so gave the campaign ago and generally enjoyed it. Not sure about the open world nature of the game. Any time a game goes open world it takes a lot of work to keep it from being repetitive with just spawned events. HZD had written really interesting side characters so that the world felt real and genuinely interesting. You didn't know what story you might uncover. Halo Infinite, like AC, delivered only cookie-cutter base captures and bounty hunter targets. The advantage Halo has over AC is that the first person shooter combat is the point of the game and enjoyable - so there's value I'm having enemies thrown at you en masse. Ultimately, though, I'd rather the Campaign had been more linear like the original games, or else, something more like Mass Effect 2, where you can travel to different places and engage the areas and combat while also enjoying plot progression. The 'halo' ring is obviously a smaller environment but even so, a bit too repetitive in terms of terrain.
    Finished the game, season 1, and have gone back to the multiplayer which is great. Not sure if I'll continue with the new campaign seasons.

    Oh, and Fallen Order, finished that. I'm not sure what to make of it. I really enjoyed it while I was playing it but I went back to try the challenges and it lost its appeal. I remember wishing there were more world to travel to, the overall game felt small compared to KOTOR. The mentor Jedi lady was dull, and the pilot was okay but inconsequential. Maybe having a team dynamic like KOTOR might have been good. Night Sister girl at the end was awesome but I was disappointed we didn't see more of her. After playing KOTOR back in the day I played it through at least twice more over the years. I don't think I'll ever replay Fallen Order. The story was okay but the world's felt linear and a lot of the fun was in the combat challenge. That's fine but it reduces the replay appeal to me once I've conquered it. I may well play the next one, but FO isn't top of any of my lists.

    I'm pondering trying Nier Automata when the price drops more. The gameplay videos seen online don't look like my sort of thing but I have a friend who swears by the story line.

    Beyond that, I've just learned a new Secret of Monkey Island game is being produced with Ron Gilbert, the original writer, and other original team members. Return to Monkey Island will definitely be on my list. There's a new Indiana Jones game also being produced and an open world Star Wars game. So Lucas Film are busy!

    Other than those not really sure what to turn my attention to next. Maybe there's a classic adventure game I missed...
     
    Last edited: May 16, 2022
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  23. Galant

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    Ah, on the Switch, Fire Emblem appeals to me. The high prices on Switch games is just a pain though. Maybe it'll go on sale at some point.

    Has anyone played it?
     

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