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Comment by fumar | Hacker News Reader

I stopped playing video games by the time I started college. I can't recall once specific game or event or thought that spurred the change. Recently, as I near 30 yrs old, I wanted to step back into my childhood and picked up a Switch with Zelda. The game starts with a nice intro, light game mechanics, and then sets you loose. It has been a week and I have been playing 2-3 hours per day, every day. I can't remember the last time, I played a game that teleported me to a new world, feel like a kid, success. Any other games you all recommend from the last decade?

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Mass Effect, Last of Us, Uncharted, Metal Gear Solid, God of War, Portal, Metroid Prime, Super Mario Galaxy.

Mass Effect 1-3 is one of the greatest space epics of all time. Seriously, amazing.

The Last of Us is just perfect storytelling, a true last hurrah to that generation.

Uncharted is straight up living the life of Indiana Jones in modern day, in the most AMAZING set pieces ever.

Metal Gear Solid, I don't even know how to begin. From the first game to the last, the vision, the scope, the insane story, the even more insane characters. It's the alpha and the omega in storytelling, and presentation.

God of War has the most insane boss battles.

Portal is just the most unique IP, totally different than anything else.

Metroid Prime brings Metroid into 3D PERFECTLY.

Mario Galaxy, is just charming.

I've been so disappointed by mass effet. After finishing fallout 2 recently, I looked up for some quality material, and people oversold it to me so I bought it on steam.

Yes, having a SF + FPS + RPG is an nice innovation. And the atmosphere is really well done. All in all it's a decent game, with several endings, and a finely crafted epic touch.

But it's nowhere close to the hype it got.

The dialogues are terrible. Star wars episode 2 level.

The environments are incredibly dull. Empty. Repetitive. "Illusion of openness" but really just closed connected corridors except on the empty planets. What saves the game is the space exploration system making you feel you are really bad ass.

The combat system is a mess. I never could tell when I was winning because of my skill or some chance. Does my new equipment works ? Was this spell used right ? No idea. I just powered through the last 2 levels because it was just more efficient. Like in any modern game, healing is so easy anyway.

The UI Is terrible. Your bag is full, but you can't mass manipulate things to sell them. Reading an item description takes a split second, which cumulatively makes choosing gear a torture.

The game is buggy. FPS drops (it's an old game on a recent graphic card, damn it), characters stuck in walls, camera not moving... I was ok with that... on the PS1.

The writing isn't close to any classical RPG (fallout, baldur's gate, final fantasy 7, tale of fantasia, chrono trigger...). The motivation of characters are underwhelming: you feel no passion, anger or driving emotion of any kind, nor intellectual master plans. Everything seems a reason and a shortcut to get going. The person you are playing has the charisma of an oyster. The backstories are the only thing not messed up, and each of your comrade have a cool unique personality.

And god, half of the game time is spent on those awful planet exploration transitions with the mako. Not to mention moving anywhere is slow and clunky while being a good part of the game. And those unskipable animations (docking, mako droping, elevators, mass relays...), really what were they thinking ? The game is basically unplayable without using the apparently famous "bind game acceleration to middle click" hack so you can just speed up time and not become crazy. Having to cheat in a game not to win but to be able to enjoy it is not good design.

Mass Effect series was a weird one for me. Each game had its flaws, and each game fixed some of those flaws, but then introduced a ton of new ones.

There's an excellent breakdown for each on gamedesignreviews.com

Great write up !

Well, Mass Effect never put itself in the category of those CRPG's, ever. It's absolutely inline with Star Wars, as that is what it was HIGHLY influenced by.

If we're talking crummy UI, and buggy gameplay. ANYTHING in the Fallout series isn't exactly something I would hold up in high regards :)

Mass Effect is supposed to be a space opera, not an open world like you were looking for. It's very much a story driven, go to x y z story line. With some branching.

If you've only played the first one, I can see why you'd have these reactions, it's A LOT rougher than the sequels. Which are far more polished.

I don't understand why you have been downvoted, since your reply makes sense. HN is a weird place, so many intelligent people and so many emotional reactions.

> ANYTHING in the Fallout series isn't exactly something I would hold up in high regards :)

Yes, it's the only one in the list though. Plus Fallout 1 and 2 (the goods ones) are more complex and old than mass effect.

I didn't play KOTOR so I couldn't compare to it. The space opera part is definitely a success, so I didn't hate the game. I quite enjoyed it. It's just not on my "must play" list, which contrast with everything I heard or read about the game, some even stating it was the best game of their life. I got too high expectations.

Wasn't so much the gameplay for me, but the 100+ hours of story, and the universe that was created. If it wasn't for that god damn ME3 ending, it would have been a perfect trilogy for me.

> Metal Gear Solid

I bought a PS4 just to play the latest MGS. That series of games is so amazing and the latest one is superb. Characters, cut scenes, missions, etc. are all extremely well designed.

I "beat" the game - it took me about 160hrs over 6 months (the game is fucking hard, and I'm very much a casual gamer who isn't very good at playing through games fast).

I'm only at about 60% completion of all the accomplishments you can get in the game (though I did complete the main story).

Highly recommended (if you're into sneaker games even just a little bit).

> God of War

The first game. The sequels are much worse.

Enjoyed the all honestly, tough to pick a favorite at this point.

> Last of Us

I basically stopped playing games during college due to the heavy CS workload. After graduation, I decided to pick up a PS4 and start reliving these exciting childhood memories, and Last of Us was one of those games that changed my life. I can't get Ellie off my mind for several weeks after finishing the game. Last of Us Part 2 is going to be another feel trip.

Yes top 5 games of my life, for sure.

Mario Galaxy was felt weird and a little forced for the first couple of levels. But quickly you get converted into believing the weird at first glance level design is really a masterstroke of genius.

I'm nearing 30 and had almost given up on gaming.

Overwatch has got me playing more games than I had for years, though it's very different from the kind of game you're talking about. Playing it with friends and voicechat in particular is immensely fun, because it somehow feels more meaningful than any other multiplayer shooter - maybe it's the characters, maybe just the general tone, but either way it feels like I'm learning and achieving things.

Life is Strange does the transporting-to-a-world thing very nicely, though it's almost not a game (and many of the more game-ey elements detract from it IMO). Very cinematic, and a work of art in terms of storytelling - though I'm still not quite sure I'd call it fun.

Kerbal Space Program is fantastic in terms of giving you a sense of achievement, of building something through your own skill. My first successful moon mission was probably the best feeling I've ever got from a videogame.

Child of Light is a very cute hand-drawn, fairytale-themed, final-fantasy-esque adventure. Again maybe less a game as such, but a beautiful world to explore, though it's locked in the horrible dark dungeon of UbiSoft DRM. (Also be aware that it's full of doggerel, in keeping with the theme)

> though it's locked in the horrible dark dungeon of UbiSoft DRM.

Damn, I was hoping to play this game some day, because I really like reading Brie Code's essays. I hope her new indie studio manages to sell without DRM.

Heh, I disliked the focus of her popular essays, but I liked the game a lot (for reasons that I think were often the opposite of what she argued for). It was just a pain to have to wait a minute for uPlay to sort itself out whenever I wanted to play it, particularly when it's such a nice and sweet game that I played to get away from everything.

I might regret asking, but... what did you dislike about her essays? I'm all for playing different kinds of video games made by and for different kinds of people. That's what her focus seems to be. What did you get out of it?

I disliked the attacks on games that work well as games and are enjoyed by many players, or on attention to graphics (when for me the graphics were one of the big things that made Child of Light so fun to play). Games are a visual, interactive, skill-based medium; people who are less interested in these things will be better off with other media and that's fine.

By all means explore new possibilities for the medium, putting the focus in different places. But don't throw away what makes games great, especially to please an audience that was never interested in games in the first place. Games are a wonderful thing already, and dismissing the current state of gaming as "boring" or "murder simulators" is as mean-spirited as it is trite. (And the claim that games that appeal to non-gamers could be being made if only it weren't for diversity issues in the industry is not one to throw around lightly).

I found her whole focus on diversity inconsistent and unclear - at times she talks about the importance of having distinct perspectives on games and gaming, yet at other times she talks about having diverse teams develop games, which run rather contrary to each other. What made Child of Light great was that it mines this rich cultural seam of European fairy tales, playing with the (ugh) tropes of the genre. That kind of backdrop is even more important for a game than for a book or film, because culture is harder to convey in a game; the player has a lot of freedom so there's less chance to show them important details, instead you need to be able to pull out motifs that you can rely on the player to understand. The king, the sword, the jesters, the knightly mouse, the sisters, the golem - the game works because all these things are dripping in cultural connotations and every element of the game - the writing, the music, the gameplay - is embedded in that cultural context. It's the kind of work that only a culturally homogenous team (not necessarily by birth culture perhaps, but people with years of living in the same shared culture) could produce.

I'd be very happy to see games from other perspectives - but I think that perspective needs to be shared across the team. There are times where her essays read like she wants to insist on within-team diversity, which I think would destroy the ability to make a game like Child of Light - particularly given that the culture in question is an inherently European one with traditional concepts of nobility, gender roles and the like (which the game is acknowledging and buying into even as it plays around with some of them).

> Games are a visual, interactive, skill-based medium; people who are less interested in these things will be better off with other media and that's fine.

I have a bit of a problem with this, because the most obvious group of people excluded from games is women (who mostly only play mobile games, which are interactive, visual, skill-based), and yet you seem to be implying that there is something "natural" about their aversion towards a visual, interactive, skill-based medium. I really want to fight against this argument of naturality, because it's been used countless times historically to exclude women from everything from politics to medicine and programming.

Surely if most "real gamers", for want of a better term, are not women, then that's the fault of the games, not the women? I think that's what Brie Code is fundamentally arguing about.

> who mostly only play mobile games, which are interactive, visual, skill-based

Markedly less all of those, in my experience - and fundamentally less good as games. I definitely don't want to see "real" (your term) games become more like mobile games. And that seems to be what Brie Code is arguing for - removing the possibility of failure, turning down the skill aspects, putting less emphasis on the graphics. If she can bring a different cultural vision to a game that remains a "real game" in terms of being visual, interactive and skill-based then I'm all for that.

> Surely if most "real gamers", for want of a better term, are not women, then that's the fault of the games, not the women? I think that's what Brie Code is fundamentally arguing about.

I don't think an activity appealing more or less to one sex or another is a "fault" in either. Just as not every person likes the same things, not every demographic does either; why would we ever expect any different?

I can't shake the feeling that you're trying to say in the most adult and eloquent way possible that you just want to make sure that girls don't come into your sandbox and put frilly pink dresses on your toys, that they have their own (mobile) toys, away and separate from yours, and that's the way it should stay. :-)

Well I happen to like dresses. But I don't want all my toys taken away because girls don't like them.

Fundamentally I care about video games in their current form. They've brought me a lot of joy during some of the worst parts of my life. Of course I'm bothered if someone thinks they're broken and wants to remove some of my favourite parts.

Does it have to be like this? Can't there be room for more than one kind of game? I don't think Code is saying that we need to get rid of one kind of game to make room for another kind of game. I think she's just saying that she wishes that there were some interesting games with depth that she could share with people other than white males. She says how much she likes games and what kind of experiences she got from them, but then she can't share those experiences with many close friends in her life.

Surely there's room for more than one kind of toy in the sandlot?

> I don't think Code is saying that we need to get rid of one kind of game to make room for another kind of game.

The sense I got from some of her posts was that she did want to do that. And fundamentally there's always an opportunity cost - there are only so many creators and so many studios. She implies she wishes Child of Light had involved less swords and dragons, and had more accessible controls; I think all of those changes would have made it a worse game (for me but I think also for most other people). And I really enjoyed that game, and so I'd like to see more games like it made.

If I thought she was actually going to succeed in making games that other people enjoyed then I could probably support that, even if I'd be sad to see her stop making games that I enjoy. The reason I find her so frustrating to read is that I think she's got it wrong. (And yes a certain amount of experimentation and willingness to make mistakes is a great thing, and possibly necessary to being a great artist. But I don't think what she's doing is that). I think the things she's doing differently aren't going to help other people enjoy her games more, they're just going to make people who do enjoy games enjoy hers less. And if she ends up making games that hardly anyone enjoys that will be a horrible waste of talent. If she never created anything else for the rest of her life I would still be grateful to her, so maybe it's unfair to expect anything more. But it's still frustrating to see.

Journey is a great game. You can "finish" it in one setting. Unfortunately it's a Playstation exclusive. Maybe you have a friend with a Playstation (3 or 4) that you can use for an evening or a weekend?

The studio's newest game, Abzu, is on PC as well and is gorgeous.

Abzu is not a That Game Company game. It is made by Giant Squid, a studio founded by the art director of Journey.

Seconded. I replay Journey all the time. It's great for that 'i just need to unwind' moments. I took a punt originally and bought a second hand PS3 just to play Journey, and I'm SO glad I did.

I've now got a second hand PS4, and the first thing I did was re-download Journey (for free! Thanks Sony!)

One day I will get to be a White traveller...

Well, I think you're after another game which gives you that kind of nostalgia, and honestly, nothing has come close to me like this Zelda has; it's got so much in common with the original, with all the added lore and advanced game play.

But, I'll recommend the Borderlands series; especially Borderlands 2; the game play is a lot of fun, but the dialogue is absolutely amazing: rich and funny, and a little campy without being TOO campy.

> I have been playing 2-3 years per day, every day

That's losing track of time on an impressive scale!

Portal and Portal 2

Also, the Half Life series. Not nearly as explorable as the early zelda games, though.

Antichamber is also a very fun adventure puzzler. It actually gives you tons of leeway even though it does have a linear path that's the easiest. I took maybe 6 hrs on my first play through, but there are speed runs that go under 10 minutes.

Splatoon, a sequel to which should be coming out for the switch, is a different kind of game, but may inspire some of the same feelings.

This is a bit outside your 10-year window, but Ico (2001) and Shadow of the Colossus (2005) are both very good.

I definitely agree with the Ico and Shadow of the Colossus recommendations.

Try The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds for the 3DS. If that doesn't take you back, nothing will.

I see a lot of comments about game suggestions on things you may have missed out on. I think there is another common thread lurking of giving up gaming at some point, not consciously either, it just happens less and less.

I felt this and then in the last few years I rediscovered my love for gaming. Is life calming down? Career stable, kids are growing and enjoying games too.

Is that feeling of reliving things you loved from your childhood a thing that happens more regularly in 30's or 40's? Any studies on this that anyone is aware of?

The Witcher 3.

Minecraft (with friends).

Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.

The Witcher 3, definitely. You still need to sit through some intro / explanations, but it's pretty well made. And the story itself is amazing. (As are the books, if you're into fantasy)

I havent gotten through the intro on The Witcher 3 ... I have tried a few times and the PC controls seem pretty weird. Maybe I should try it again.

If you feel overwhelmed by questions / story at the beginning, don't worry. You can mostly ignore the politics and learn about the factions as you go. As with all Witcher stories: everybody's got a point, everybody was hurt in the past, there are no "good" choices and you'll regret them very often. And that's great :-)

I struggled with it in the beginning. For me, it took getting well into one of the major plot-point quest lines a couple hours into the game (bloody baron) before I got hooked.

I'd say 7 days to die(with friends), I'm 33 now and we pour a lot of our free time into it (I'm at over 400 hours in the last 2 years)

I cannot stop playing 7days, so much fun.

I have poured a lot of hours in 7 days but the development feels really directionless and bogged down.

Removing gore blocks might have been defensible perf wise (even though there seem to be many other low hanging fruits), but it means that the bases are now extremely easy to defend.

Everybody (myself included) in the group of friends I play with have lost interest in the game after spending horde nights calmy waiting atop a fortification that nothing can breach.

Minecraft can be good fun.

KOTOR is pretty awesome.

The Witcher 3 I thought was awful. I'd suggest watching some gameplay video from it first and see if you like the setting, because the gameplay's not good enough to overrule that if you don't. Lots of randomly getting stuck on tiny bits of foliage in the landscape.

I also had a lot of fun playing Super Mario Galaxy. Great soundtrack as well.

Must play: Bioshock Infinite

Also, the original Bioshock is fantastic, but its a bit dated now.

These are two of the greatest games ever made, IMHO

The Mass Effect series is absolutely worth checking out, especially if you're a sci-fi buff. :)

Damn, that's hard.

Hyper Light Drifter might be a good fit (one game I often recommend).

It takes a lot of inspiration from 'Zelda, a link to the past' and other old games and makes its own thing with them.

It drops you in an unknown world and trust you to discover it yourself.

I got hooked on one of the newer Civilization games recently. Get nuked by Gandhi!

Stellaris is a great game in a similar genre. Really well done.

Another game which hasn't been mentioned yet:

Xenoblade Chronicles X on the WiiU.

It is a game, very much in the same caliber that the current Zelda is - open world of the same level, great story, much to explore, the soundtrack is pure gold. If you have the chance, get it.

I spent (not wasted!) around 280 hours in it, almost completing it fully (i'm at around 96 or 98%, can't recall). AFAIK Nintendo even bought out the studio which created it...

Nintendo bought them 10 years ago, before they created Xenoblade Chronicles which was the most impressive game on the Wii. Xenoblade Chronicles X is the sequel on the Wii U. The things they managed to put on screen with that hardware invoke memories of the demoscene.

As soon as I saw the first footage of the new Zelda game, I thought for sure they were building it using Monolith's engine, because their engine is something special. Even the biggest open world games just don't feel that large compared to Xenoblade Chronicles.

In real life when you look off and see a mountain in the distance, that's the feeling I get from it that I simply haven't gotten in any other open world game. Those ARE big, but just don't feel big.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monolith_Soft

The Talos Principle.

It rewards divergent thinking. Probably has the most easter eggs I've seen in any game. Great story as well.

I believe a sequel is also in the works.

Isn't the talos principle very linear? Or did I just never get beyond the intro?

It's not linear. You progress through different-themed worlds and you are free to play levels in any order. Each level has more-or-less single solution but it sometimes takes quite a bit of creativity to reach it. Great brain exercise.

Some of my favorites (portal 2, mario galaxy, journey) are already mentioned. The most recent game I really enjoyed was Grow Home. It's not the most in depth game, but the mechanics and light, but wonderful, exploration make it one of my favorite games.

mario maker https://youtu.be/6xiVcScNQUE

Dark Souls.

- Skyrim

- Mass Effect 2

skyrim

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