That’s not remotely the point here.

That WAS the sale price. It’s $200 something dollars for the complete set of Stellaris normally, on 50% sale that’s still $100+ for everything. Pretty sure CKII was worse.

I mean, you say that, but a new player looking to get into Stellaris or CKII is looking at a $300 bill if they want all the content. In fact that’s what prevented me from getting into Stellaris, I own the base game, but when I discovered I’d need to shell out an additional several hundred dollars, even during a sale, for not only new species but just for base game mechanics, I stopped in my tracks.

Compare with Civilization, I own Civ V and Civ VI and all the released content for each, pretty sure I bought each of those for less than $20.

Honestly with a writeup like this I wouldn’t be mad about it even if you did, this is excellent. I wish all my downvoted comments got this kind of attention.

I think this is all fair criticism. I played this game when I was 12, after all, and did mostly play the multiplayer after a single run through of the story.

Also important to note that I hadn’t actually played the mainline Prime games yet at that time, that probably had a lot to do with it.

With Primehack you can play the OG prime series (I think the Wii U version?) on PC with a controller for dual joystick control like a modern FPS, or even m+k. It also runs well on steam deck, I have it on mine. It’s very excellent, highly recommend.

I actually liked Hunters :c

I found Tunic to be a bit obtuse, but I’m usually a wiki gamer and that game really seemed like one where I should not do that. As a result I really didn’t know what I was doing for a good while. I’ve never had a game make me work so hard to learn to read before, and even that I only learned by cheating…

All that said though, fantastic game, 10/10, it feels like classic Zelda bred together with Hollow Knight. I do recommend it. If you’re going in blind though, be prepared to use your head and maybe also a pad of paper.

That makes perfect sense and 2 seconds of thinking about it probably would have led me to that conclusion. Thanks for the clarification.

Carcinisation. Presumably rooted in the Cancer crab constellation.

I had a look at VaatiVidya’s video on this (many spoilers, you are warned) and while this all looks incredibly awesome, all I can think about seeing some of the new weapons are how these things are going to be an absolute menace in PvP. Specifically the >!beast claws.!<

Good thing I’m already trash at PvP and am used to losing, because it looks like we’re getting like 8 new variations on what made Rivers of Blood a meta pick. I’m not really that upset about it, PvP isn’t my main draw to elden ring and I am going to have a ton of fun with these new weapons in single player, so I consider it a net positive, but even so, yeesh.

This is the sort of use case that VR can be a great fit for if someone put the money into creating it. Roblox isn’t the medium for this.

Fuck yeah, good for Mike. That sort of thing still works sometimes, but you have to be really, really good at what you do. But getting a good portfolio in the right hands at the right time is really all it takes.

How could I forget about Dolly Parton! I should be ashamed. The world could use a few more of her.

I did appreciate the story, thanks. And that’s about exactly how I expected it happened, lol. Minus the hikers, I wouldn’t have guessed that, but I can imagine exactly how it sounded when they told you to watch out for them bars!

With proper use of metamagic, every spell is potentially like five different spells. Poindexter over here might have two dozen different named spells written down in his diary, but I know two fire based spells and I can make each of them do about eight different things, half of which aren’t even fire damage.

It’s the difference between writing down a recipe, and knowing how to cook.

Don’t let my people monopolize that accent! It’s a beautiful accent, in my opinion. Shame about most of the folks it’s attached to. Most people hear a southern drawl and their mind goes right to white supremacy rednecks, which is unfortunately not incorrect of them to think. I wish we had some popular well educated folks to bring that sound to the larger populace so that it isn’t such a red flag.

After reviewing this list I have neglected to mention Shadows of Forbidden Gods, a Civ like where you play as Cthulhu, and more importantly I forgot to talk about Deep Rock Galactic and will be hurling myself into lava as penance at my nearest convenience.

Hell yeah I would.

If you enjoy roguelikes, I got you in spades.

• Slay the Spire is currently $8 USD on sale and is one of my most played games of all time. Deck building roguelike.
• Caves of Qud is the single greatest modern classic roguelike that I’ve ever played and is also in my top 5 of most played games of all time. $20 USD. If you understand what the string of words “modern classic roguelike” means and that intrigues you then you’re in for a treat and a half.
• Dead Cells speaks for itself on its store page and is technically out of price range for this at $25 when not on sale, but it’s worth the extra five bucks. It’s also worth the additional $25 for all the DLCs, after you’ve sunk 200 hours into the base game already.
• Cult of the Lamb - ditto above about the price tag, you actually largely can’t go wrong with most things published by Devolver Digital. I own a significant percentage of their lineup and haven’t been disappointed. Devolver isn’t the dev company, but they take a lot of indie teams for publishing and I like them a lot. They’re good folks that sell good games.
• Risk of Rain 2 - is also $25 but worth the squeeze. I’ll try to keep everything else in the price range.
• Rift Wizard - $14.99, and the very similar but slightly superior Rift Wizard 2 at $17.99 are fun little strategy-heavy games about playing what amounts to wizard chess. The store page videos will describe this game better than I’m able to. It’s actually quite a good little game for people that enjoy games that require you to become ludicrously overpowered to survive.
• Balatro - $14.99, the significant buzz around this game is entirely warranted, cursed poker will consume the next four months of your life. You have been warned.
• Path of Achra - $9.99 A self described “broken build sandbox” that is, and very much looks like, a game made by one dude in his spare time. Don’t let the art fool you, I love it to pieces. Another game for people that enjoy games that require you to get super overpowered to survive.
• Tiny Rogues - $9.99 I only recently got into this one. Great game, great replay value, check out videos to see if it’s for you.

Outside of the roguelike genre there are also a couple good ones that I’ll name, though I do admit this list will probably be shorter:

• Siralim Ultimate - $19.99 is one of the grindiest monster collector games I’ve ever played but if you enjoy grinding that sort of game, you can build teams that would dunk your competitive Uber Pokémon team into the shadow realm. It has a ridiculous number of creatures with a ridiculous number of absurd abilities and you’ll find yourself farming this game on and off for like six years. Or I did anyway, I’ve been following the evolution of the game since Siralim 2 in 2016. You can also play any of them on your phone, which I actually find to be the superior experience for the most part because it’s a good game to play in 10-minute bursts over long periods of time. If you’re going to get any of them go straight to Ultimate, don’t bother with the others, it’s the same game significantly evolved over time.
• Exanima - $14.99 Top down physics based melee combat RPG. Check the store page videos and youtube to figure out if this interests you. It very much did interest me, and after several years of dev silence the game is now being actively updated again, which is very exciting.
• Ultrakill - $25 currently (I know, I know, I said I wouldn’t do this anymore…) Buy it on sale if you’re a fan of fast paced FPS games, say new Doom for example. Don’t read, just buy. Trust me on this one. I wouldn’t steer you wrong, I promise.
• Hollow Knight - $14.99 The greatest metroidvania of our age and spawned more knockoffs than the genre namesakes did. Pls give silksong.
• Sunless Sea - $18.99 This is a very slow and very story driven game about being a sailor in hell. Familiarity with the general setting of Fallen London is very beneficial but is not required. This game is slow. But if you can vibe with it, it will deliver one of the most deeply touching RPG stories I’ve ever had the pleasure of experiencing. This game is truly a treasure that won’t be appreciated by most people. But even so I would be doing you a disservice if I didn’t at least mention it for you to look at.

I have to stop myself here because I could go on about this all night and still not be done. Gaming is my main hobby and indie games are the main games I play. Name me a genre you enjoy and I’ll scroll around for recommendations if none of the above catch your eye.

It’s the golden age of indie games. I’ve got dozens of games on my steam library made by a team of between 1 and 12 people that I bought for $20 or less. Those guys are doing great, and doing great work. I rarely ever even give a second glance to big AAA releases anymore, with a couple specific exceptions.

https://xkcd.com/927/