It’s the perfect game. The story is tight. The builds and weapons are fun. It’s not too grindy, but you can benefit from grinding if you want to. The post-apocalyptic trash planet setting has yet to be diluted and the characters have yet to be flanderized by later entries in the series.
It’s a game that I can pick up anytime and just vibe. My favorite part is collecting all of Tannis’ ECHO Logs throughout the game and getting to follow along with her trauma and descent into madness.
It helps that it has the second best DLC in the series to date. Secret Armoury of General Knox is chef’s kiss. Assault on Dragon Keep is only better by a hair.
I could play it endlessly. Death is expected and you constantly upgrade. And when you have a good run it really feels like you’ve earned it, as opposed to a lot of Rogues that make you feel like you got lucky with buffs.
Final Fantasy VIII
There’s so many ways you can play it. And there are so many ways to grind beyond the typical RPG way of killing more monsters.
Morrowind
It’s simply the most amazing world to get lost in. There’s something to do or explore around every corner. And the game practically begs you to break it.
Final Fantasy XII
This one is my current game. They made an ATB turn based system somehow real time. And it’s so cathartic to wonder around beautiful landscapes killing monsters in classic ATB style seamlessly.
I have dozens of thousands of hours logged in that game, all because it’s so easy to get in to and so hard to get out of. Just turn it on, do some pirate shit, then realize it’s been hours and you probably should have eaten or slept at some point.
Yeah it’s just my forever go-to. It just is so disappointing that such an overwhelmingly successful series has been ignored by Bethesda for so long. 2016 should have been the next TES series, not just a resale. Same with AE.
The level design was just really good. There were many different ways to tackle various obstacles in the environment and the time trials had many routes you could take.
Now that I’m relatively good at the game I can beat the story levels in around 4 hours ish?
I thought the second was interesting. I didn’t like it as much as the first but for what it was it was pretty good.
The way they made the open world didn’t work very well in some ways. For example to get the player into new areas they had to funnel them through specific choke points. Additionally I wasn’t a fan of forced combat.
However I thought the main missions and the graphics were high points. I enjoyed finding various collectibles/exploring and some time trials were actually a pretty good time. I hope one day they decide to revisit the series but I have a feeling it might be shelved for quite a long time.
Monster Hunter. I must have spent over 1,800 hrs. on the two latest series. I can’t exactly turn my brain off with this game but nothing makes me more comfortable than having a Lance or Charge Blade in my hands.
When it came out in 2006, I played it with all the time with my brother against Bots only and planning out every move.
I recommended it to my friends a bit later and every few years we made a LAN party or an all nighter online session. Through the years all of us moved into different parts of the country, got older and building families.
But around this year’s new years eve, we got into it again, play it every Friday since then. We spend more time together through the game and everybody is having fun, because every match turns out different since everybody got really good at it. Also, it has a surprising strategic depth once you’re really in it and it runs on every shitty PC without any bigger issues.
I really love the game for enabling us this good time together.
Doom (1993) for me. The newer custom maps and mods too, ofc, but more often than not I’ll spin up episode 1 or 2 just to play through it.
Actually, if I’m really stressed, sometimes I’ll “play” Doom maps in my head - just walking around, trying to remember as much detail as I can. I find it strangely soothing. Damn, I guess Doom is my happy place
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