Backlog Talk: What to play & specific recommendations

Any 4X turn based strategy game would work. Although many of those have very good soundtracks themselves.

Rimworld is very good for that

Factorio is a good game for this. Build a giant factory and chill.

Deep Rock Galactic works for me right now.

I play these very often in that situation:

Lonely Mountains Downhill

Creeper World 3

Zuma Deluxe

Morphblade

Tetr.io

Destruction allstars, COD multiplayer, any driving game

Mark of the Ninja uses visual sound indicators so you can play it in silence if you want without losing anything. Also there's subtitles for the story parts.

Factorio easy

Elite: Dangerous

Definitely a learning curve to the various systems but it’s also a lot more user friendly to beginner players now. Very fun to kick back as a space trucker to a podcast.

The campaign of TF2 is soooooo good!! Its one of my favorites of all time

If you don't mind its difficulty, the Dark Souls series has a decent magic system I'd argue. I'll admit it could be better, but it could definitely be worse. I've tried running a magic build on Dark Souls 3 before and it went alright, I liked that it made me be creative during boss fights with how I use magic.

On that note, I'd recommend Dark Souls 3 more than 1 and 2 if you're looking for decent magic. Not because the previous games have no good magic, but instead because 3 has an MP bar whereas 1 and 2 have limited spell uses. I prefer the MP bar more but if you prefer spell uses then the option is there with 1 and 2.

I wouldn't recommend Bloodborne, not for magic anyway as to me personally, I find its magic to be a little disappointing when compared to how many other weapons there are in the game, not to mention most magic in Bloodborne is also easy to dodge, at least in my opinion.

I just feel obligated to respond to that. I've been playing DoS2 co-op on and off for some months now. It's a fun game, winning a tough battle is very exhilarating, but... I am not a fan of the magic system at all.

Man I have the stupidest smile on my face looking at your backlog. Hello from the other side. If you haven't played the following already, also consider: NieR: Automata, Return of the Obra Dinn, Life is Strange, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons. And if you don't play through the entire list you posted, definitely do not skip Disco Elysium or Zero Escape 999. Elysium is a literary tour de force, an imposing outlier; and 999, as goes that quote - "highly recommended, can't tell you why."

I wish I could recommend a JRPG that'd fit the time frame you're looking for, but these just aren't well known for their brevity. I deduce you already played Persona 5 (since you listed Strikers in the backlog) so you know what I am talking about. It might be just me, but I feel JRPGs as a genre are somewhat strict in their design, vision and target audience; there's an FPS for every taste and a platformer for every taste, but in some fundamental sense every JRPG seems to come out of the same factory that makes all the JRPGs. Your beloved village burns, 70 hours of coming into your true power by helping old ladies cross the street, Lysanderoth betrays you and you unlock your true potential in a burst of rage, (a) God is the final villain, etc. Maybe we're due for an explosion of variety in the genre now that we're past the "fuck it, we're remaking FFVII" moment.

If "Hitman Trilogy" means the most recent 3 games, I really can't recommend them enough. They're all pretty short, just to do the missions and see the story, but there's a ton of replay value in the sandbox-style levels, if you're so inclined. They're some of my favorite games to come out in the past several years, and they're just really, really fun.

Definitely play life is strange. One of my all-time favorite game. Such a good story

When you’re ready for another JRPG go for FF6. It’s a classic and meaty without being TOO long.

Heads up:

Play Hearts of Stone first, Blood and Wine second. Blood and Wine by the end has this all "fin; our play is completed" vibe and features all sorts of tropes from the "this is the final arc, all bets are off" playbook. It'd be weird to go through all of that only for Geralt to go back to his old life doing what he does in Hearts of Stone.

Hearts of Stone kind of meanders a bit in the beginning. It's an exciting new monster contract! No, it's a reunion with an old friend and/or love interest! No, it's a disaster and you'll have to improvise your way out of prison in a foreign land! No, wait, you got saved by this asshole, and he wants you to help him deal with the other asshole by running a bunch of opaque errands! You might get a certain sense of fatigue and of asking yourself "it's one damned thing after another, why do I even have to deal with any of these people", especially if in the main storyline you got the ending where Nilfgaard conquers the North and Ciri takes the helm. The turning point is when you finally get a sense of the two assholes and the nature of their "deal", and who's the worse asshole between them, and you start to understand piece by piece what you need to do to climb out of the shithole you've somehow fallen into. One sequence in particular, including a certain mind screw boss fight, gets very artistic and touching, and if you go for the "Best Ending" then figuring out the final coup Geralt must pull off to outsmart the Alpha Asshole is very satisfying, so stick with it.

In Blood and Wine be aware that if you come into it with any notion of your own moral compass and "I'll figure it out on my own" you will get an extremely tragic ending. You want a good ending? Remember the blonde healer mage from your favorite JRPG who is friend to all living things and believes in the good in everyone and doesn't understand why everyone doesn't just get along, no matter how much blood has been spilled and how much suffering been wrought already; and raise her to the power of twenty -- that's the person you have to roleplay as to avert complete tragedy in this arc (what this person has to do with Geralt, I don't know). There's plenty of fun quests to do and you will be showered with opportunities to spend way more Gold than you have for Grandmaster equipment, "rune words", and one other big thing I don't want to spoil.

If you're into Paradox games, Stellaris is highly recommended. Wait for a sale though.

There's also Sins of a Solar Empire, which is a real-time 4x game. It's $1 right now on Humble Bundle and it includes Fallen Enchantress, which is another 4x w/ fantasy, but I don't know much about it. I got the bundle, so I'll be playing it soon-ish.

Some older games I've enjoyed:

And then there's Europa Universalis 4 w/ A Song of Ice and Fire mod. I love EU4, but I haven't tried this mod, but it gets really good reviews. I'm not sure if it'll scratch that fantasy itch, and EU4 is quite "love it or hate it."

I've found Endless Space 2 to be the 4X with the strongest unique identity. Unfortunately it does also suffer from long turns in the late-game, more so even than the Civ series. Optimising your various fleets for a variety of combat situations, optimising your Star Systems for different types of production, optimising for different races to inhabit the individual Systems, optimising the individual planets for optimal racial bonuses... Empire management starts out fun but get tedious once you control a large number of Systems with diverse populations.

Still, highly recommended. Every race is highly unique, which in my opinion is its best selling point.

Haven't played Bastion yet, but Transistor is one of my absolute favorite games ever. You can't go wrong picking it.

I would start with Transistor. I really liked Bastion when I played it, but that was in 2011 or 2012 and I am not sure if I would feel the same way about it now. From what I remember, Bastion feels a bit more like Hades in the way its combat works. If you already like Hades it might be nice to play something a little more different.

I'd vote Bastion. Transistor is a fantastic game, and you definitely should get to it very soon, but I think going back to their first game is a great way to see where a lot of their structure and narrative choices come from. I also just really adore Bastion, and it has some of the best storytelling of any game I've played.

I've only played Hades and Transistor, so all I can say is that you won't regret giving Transistor a shot

I enjoyed Bastion, especially the narration while playing. I haven't played the others, but I've heard Transistor is an even better game. I don't think you can go wrong with any of them.

Transistor is my vote. I haven't played Pyre, but I like Transistor better than Bastion in general.

The ability customization in Transistor is really on a whole other level. That alone, to say nothing of the amazing art/music/atmosphere, is worth a playthrough. Highly recommend.

Well the FF remake is relatively new so from a patient perspective I would recommend the Bioschock games.

Did you play the original FF7? If so and you enjoyed it go for FF7R. They did an incredible job with it.

Why don’t you try a rogue like ? Like spelunky or enter the gungeon or binding of Isaac?

If you don't mind going REALLY old school: The Bard Tale Trilogy Remastered

Might and Magic 6: the Mandate of Heaven. Party-based RPG one step forward from classic dungeon crawlers. You'll want to get the patch for modern PCs and possibly controls (the default control scheme will take some getting used to).

If Japanese weeb aesthetics (if you know what I mean) don't bother you, I thought Labyrinth of Refrain: Coven of Dusk had interesting dungeons and plot.

Have you played any of the Soulsborne games? They (I'm mainly thinking of Dark Souls 1 right now) have pretty good dungeon designs. You'll also need to spend quite some time underground.

Have you tried Morrowind? I remember it having a lot more variety in dungeons than Skyrim by far.

Unravel is a little heartwarming platform with a great art direction, you should absolutely try it. Orher games that I recommend are Dragon Age Origins, Burnout Paradise (the graphics is a little dated but it's a great arcade game) Shadows of the Damned (if you like crazy games) and SSX

Would you like to prefer playing something more grounded in reality or something fantastical?

In Warhammer 2, your leaders/heroes are often demigods who can wade into and solo entire enemy units. Shogun 2, on the other hand, is more realistic in that your generals and their corresponding units are more like elite (but not godly) units who will die if exposed too long.

I own and enjoy both, so I'm not sure you can really go wrong if you're okay with both settings. Shogun 2 is probably the easier entry into the series while Warhammer 2 has more unit variety (unsurprising given the two settings).

(Feel free to ask any questions you have about either game!)

If you don't have a SSD, I can't recommend Warhammer 2 unless you're willing to sit through horribly long load times. That being said, I still put probably 150 hours or so into Warhammer 2 without a SSD and loved it, and it's actually what ended up spurring me to splurge on a SSD.

Shogun 2 is probably my absolute favorite Total War game of all time and IMO an absolute masterpiece, but every faction basically has access to the same units so there isn't even remotely close to the variety Warhammer 2 has.

If you have a SSD, then Warhammer 2.

If not, then Shogun 2.

Shogun is a very small scale game, VERY good but small. Its extremely well polished and actually has an interesting mid/end game. Its one of their best historical titles (Rome 1 is my favorite). Warhammer is the exacr opposite, MASSIVE in scale and also very good. If youre at all a fan of warhammer fantasy then its a no brainer. Its not historical (obviously) but it takes everything and cranks it to 11. Think the diversity of RTW but on crack. Want to see dragons vs T-Rex's vs zombie pirates vs tanks vs giant robo skeleton with laser eyes? As someone who had 0 knowledge of warhammer beforehand i didnt know i wanted this but i sure do now. I think the most impressive thing about the warhammers is that it got me so into it with 0 knowledge of warhammer. Yes it is a lot to learn (doesn't necessarily have to be, units still smash each other) and a lot to pick up if you want it all (between wh1, 2 and all the DLC its well over $100). But its so much fun. If you just want to try one of the games I'd recommend WH2 and play as the elves (basically standard historical faction + dragons).

TLDR: if you want a small scale historical game that is very well polished, shogun. If you want a massive scale crazy pants game warhammer.

The most important question, I think, is whether you prefer history or fantasy. I’m in the historical camp, so I would go with Shogun 2. Also, I think that Shogun 2, being an older game, has systems that would be easier for new players to understand. The first time someone plays a Total War game it can be a little overwhelming.

FF7 is a beautiful experience, I loved it back in the day and it's the one I am replaying next.

My favourite was 8, actually. But if I were you I’d go 7. I’ve never played 9 much

That’s tough, I feel like 9 holds up better in a lot of ways, it was the last PS1 FF after all.

But 7 is so much more iconic, and is overall a better experience in my opinion, it doesn’t hold up as well as 9, but the characters and story in 7 are legendary.

I’m gonna have to say go with 7, because I honestly feel you will get a better appreciation of FF moving forward if you play it’s most iconic entry, especially when you move into Remake Part 2, 7 in my opinion at least is also more interesting from a setting standpoint, the sci-fi steampunk world of FF7 is so cool, and at least in my opinion, is more interesting than 9’s heavier look on fantasy.

9s graphics hold up the best. I actually would recommend 6 instead. Each character has the spotlight at some point and the main villain is one of the best in the entire FF franchise

Here’s a few co op games that you might enjoy:

Phogs!

Bridge contractor (not co op but could be fun building bridges together)

Golf with your friends

Moving out

Unravel two

Mix it up and use all the tools you get. It is very possible to make it through the game by just spamming arrows at everything, but you'll have much more fun if you actually use all the different weapons.

If you have the DLC I recommend doing a bit of it before completing the main story. I completed the main story then did some DLC and the gear I got early on in the DLC would have helped me. Speaking of I still need to finish the DLC

Dishonoured 2 was actually really cool, that is until I got stuck at a certain part and gave up

R6 has a pretty steep learning curve Like it's really to get upset when you get killed from any angle But once you know what You are doing It's the best shooter

Crash Team Racing, no questions asked. Had a huge assortment of tracks, a high skill-ceiling, and is mechanically super satisfying to play.

Mario Kart, without a doubt

I don't know anything about Final Fantasy but it sounds to me like if you have to pick one out of the three, it would be best to go forward with FF6. Your problems with other two sound much more meaningful than "crap can't beat this boss". Just look up how to cheese him and go from there

Check out a FF7 strategy guide. I struggled with the materia system first time I played, then replayed later with a strategy guide and it made a lot more sense once I saw how they can be chained together to great effect.

Gunfire Reborn is similar

Have you tried Killing Floor 2? Not procedural but its another good co op horde shooter.

Fallout 4 fits the bill for this, especially modded runs.

Not exactly patient, but I think you would like Loop Hero. It has a free demo on Steam so you can try it out and see how you feel.

How about Moonlighter? Fun little indie game, you run a shop by day, buy upgrades for it and yourself, and go dungeon crawling for loot by night.

Would definitely recommend Bloodborne if your into action rpgs

If you are really patient. Bloodborne is pretty fun.

I vote Bloodborne. Atmospheric, beautiful, and rewarding to play.

I've just recently completed GTA V & Metro Redux (2033 & Last Light), brilliant games I can strongly recommend. GTA V has some amazing missions that really get the blood pumping. FPS mode isn't terrible either. The Metro games are really good too, the story is great and the action is well paced and overall pretty exciting.

Hope you enjoy when you get round to them

I really enjoyed Persona5. I'm only going to start playing P5:R because I was playing P5 on a friend's system and they moved. Forgot to get the save data. Was about 90 hours in so I thought I'd play the upgraded version.

Also it was the exceedingly rare PS3 version and I'm not shelling out that cash. x.x

Kingdom come deliverance is a great medieval RPG

A long shot but Dark Souls/Bloodborne? I loved going through the beautiful levels just picking up everything I could. Some items are in plain sight but reachable in roundabout ways.

Why don’t you try a collectathon or a 2D platformer?

How about the metro series games. In any difficulty above easy, resources are scarce and you need go find ammo, guns and other consumables by looking for them in the environment and also managing what you have. The games are very immersive and also the resource collecting and managing make for good tension

Banished and Surviving Mars each have stockpiling mechanics. The first has you coordinating the construction of a remote medieval town and its survival in a harsh environment, with no end goal other than growing your town and surviving. The second is about setting up a colony on Mars and overcoming a randomly selected (or custom) challenge. Each game allows you to play on a map for as long as you like and it's possible to stockpile infinte amounts of resources if you so desire.

Have you tried any open-world games geared around survival or some of the more recent games that use some Assassin's Creed mechanics? From the first category, things like Ark, Astroneer, maybe Raft, Subnautica, Terraria, or even Minecraft. From the second, games like Ghost of Tsushima, Horizon Zero Dawn, and Immortals Fenyx Rising have a lot of collect and craft mechanics involved, and though I wouldn't call it a primary objective, it is ever-present.

Check out the essential to games list on the sidebar. Some things I'd add that I think aren't there:

I don't know your available consoles, these are for PC. The list linked above has those other consoles.

What platform? What genres are you favorite? Do you prefer good storytelling over good gameplay elements or vice versa? We need a bit more to go on if you want more than just 'you should play my favorite game X' replies.

If you enjoy exploration and mystery type games, definitely check out The Outer Wilds at some point (not to be confused with the Outer Worlds).

Depends on whether you get genre fatigue or not. I don't think I'd be able to stomach Persona 5 immediately after FF7, I'd get a Japan overdose. But if you don't mind that, or you even like genre marathons, then sure Persona 5 can work.

I hear that's the problem with roguelikes/lites; insanely addictive but there's no obvious point where you should stop. Personally I cut off Slay the Spire once I beat it once with every character (OK, with Watcher twice because the first time was with alpha beta omega cheese and I wanted a stance dance deck). You might end up in a cycle where you find a roguelike you fancy, run it to the ground and then eventually your sense of obligation kicks in, "come on I can't keep playing this until I literally die", exert yourself, exit comfort zone, find another roguelike, rinse repeat. Maybe you should try mixing it up with a more traditional single player experience that has a campaign with a well defined ending. These are generally the rule rather than the exception for games typically recommended in this forum; check out the essential games list in the sidebar. I'm not familiar with any of the games you got through freebies, so I can't really say anything based on the fact you bounced off of them. If you'd said "I tried God of War, Persona 5, Dishonored 2, Celeste and Detroit: Become Human and bounced off all 5" then we might start suspecting that the traditional single player experience is not for you. If you really dig the "roguelike-like" experience and want something similar that still has a well-defined campaign, you don't have a ton of options but I can recommend anything out of the Diablo series or maybe Dark Cloud.

Both of these have good free demos. They are some of my favorite games. I am not sure if they are what you are looking for, but if you want to give a try to something a little different I think you can't go wrong with just trying a demo:

ZeroRanger (full game is on Steam, but demo is only here)

Disc Room

My advice would be to do the opposite of a roguelike - a visual novel or walking simulator. Roguelikes are intensely mechanical experiences, to break you out of your comfort zone you want something that operates on an entirely different axis.

What Remains of Edith Finch, Firewatch and Tacoma are some good walking sims to check out.

13 Sentinels, Raging Loupe are some good visual novels.

Hypnospace Outlaw defies genre but is a masterpiece.

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