5 ms·

Am I wrong, am I out of touch? I can't remember the last time a big banger came out. I look at the Steam top played list and it's the same stuff from like a dec

Am I wrong, am I out of touch? I can't remember the last time a big banger came out. I look at the Steam top played list and it's the same stuff from like a decade or two ago. Yuck. The constant push for games to be living breathing things shoving microtransactions in my face instead of just being a purchased product doesn't help. The community should be living and breathing, not the changelogs that obnoxiously pop up when I'm trying to play a game.

flohofwoe 4y ago
Gaming has just become so popular that the top played games are a rather predictable "average" of the different tastes of a vast variety of gamers. But the average is always also quite boring (unless you're young and haven't seen this stuff yet a thousand times). You need to look into the niches and at the "genre edges" to find the interesting stuff. Especially Steam is full of really great "niche games". Just don't look at the top 10, you actively have to find the good stuff. Same with music btw.
web3-is-a-scam 4y ago
Elden Ring was a huge banger for me, probably the best game I've played in at least a decade and it absorbed my life for MONTHS. And it certainly doesn't have any of the stuff you're complaining about.
epolanski 4y ago
Elden Ring is one of the few AAAs that can be considered a banger by all metrics, but it too comes from a decade-old formula at this point.
- klabb3 4y ago
  Death strandning was great. But a while ago now..
- Ntrails 4y ago
  It was my first game of the genre and holy shit fo I not get it at all. The only aspect I loved was the world visuals/themes/area transitions. Actual gameplay was not really fun for me
  - extr 4y ago
    Same here. I bought it on the strength of the rave reviews and found it incredibly boring. The world has a cool vibe but the gameplay and mechanics are so so clunky. Coming from the latest Zelda game, which was kinda similar (open world, you have a horse) but absolutely 11/10 spectacular in every respect, it felt like a huge step down.
    - bmitc 4y ago
      I feel that Elden Ring is a bit too open for a From Software game. Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro, which I all love but suck at, are all a bit more directional in terms of where you need to go. You can "crawl" an area a bit more, whereas Elden Ring just feels too expansive. I'm often asking "is this where I'm even supposed to be at?". That can be fun in a mystical sort of way, but it makes it hard to even know what I should be working towards. Plus, their RPG elements run deep, and you need to basically live on the forums and wiki to understand how to piece together a build. Winging it is fine, but it usually means you've stunted yourself in some unclear way. This is why I also really like Sekiro, which removed some of that.
    - hamsalot 4y ago
      There's a T-shirt with 'I didn't beat dark souls' on the front of it and on the back, "it has a lot of design problems that make it player-unfriendly and difficult to enjoy but the culture surrounding it actively ignores these elements in favor of hyping it up as the hardest video game ever (a title it definitely doesn't have a claim to) and claiming that anyone who takes issue with problems must just be bad at video games in general". The joke is that most peoples first time with a FromSoft game results in them thinking/feeling that the game is bad/boring. I'm not saying you're wrong for not enjoying it, I'm just saying you have a lot of company.
    - mths 4y ago
      > the gameplay and mechanics are so so clunky This is a feature though, it's what makes it unique and great. I had the exact same impression when I first tried Demon's Souls as it came out around 2010. I knew the game was supposed to be hard, but it felt hard for no reason, as if they had made it clunky just to mess with you. I ignored the whole souls genre until I finally picked up the remake on the PS5 about a year ago, and it all clicked this time. It's clunky in an effort to be more realistic than many superficially similar games, and that requires you to play it differently too. Your attacks have a wind-up and cool-down period, you got stats preventing you from carrying too much gear and get even clunkier, endurance stopping you from maneuvering like a mad man etc. All these limitations are there to force you to be more strategic with your leveling, equipment, fighting, .. They're very deliberate and not "design problems that make it player-unfriendly". It's not for everyone, but it's a different experience many clearly find rewarding. And honestly, the games aren't even that hard once you grasp these concepts.
- markeibes 4y ago
  Would be nice if it had a story or characters.
pawelduda 4y ago
Totally opposite for me. Getting a PS5 alone gave me access to such a large backlog of great games. I don't think any of them had microtransactions, at least I never purchased anything else than the game itself. I'm mostly thinking PS (ex)-exclusives, you can enjoy many of them on PC as well nowadays.
nickthegreek 4y ago
Cyberpunk was the last banger for me. But I’m excited for Diablo 4 and Baldurs Gate 3 this year. Elden Ring was huge and the new Zelda is gonna be big.
- superchig 4y ago
  I don't mean to single you out, as these games are (probably) going to be awesome. I've played Cyberpunk, and I'll almost certainly play Baldur's Gate 3. But isn't it interesting that 3 of the 5 games you've mentioned are sequels, and one of the remaining ones is part of a well-established formula? It reminds me of the Age of Average, recently posted to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35355703 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35355703
  - lelandfe 4y ago
    I wouldn't consider Baldur's Gate 3 a sequel in any meaningful way beyond its name.
    - peterashford 4y ago
      I would. The engine is clearly hugely upgraded and they've definitely added a lot to the formula, but they've also kept a lot about what people loved of the original games. I'm really looking forward to the final release
      - lelandfe 4y ago
        Huh, I don't see any of the original in it. Aesthetics, gameplay, and even tone of the game are all way more Divinity than anything Black Isle ever made. What of the originals do you still see in Larian's new one?
        peterashford 4y ago
        Hmmm.... I played through both Baulder's Gate, BG2 and a bunch of the associated games - Icewind Dale etc. Had a very familiar feel to me. Obviously your milage varies
lelandfe 4y ago
Variously from the last few years: Cyberpunk, Hogwarts Legacy, God of War Ragnarok, Elden Ring. Red Dead 2 in 2018. Atomic Heart was promoted like a banger but I bounced off of it. Starfield is coming soon, as is the new Legend of Zelda. I suspect you might just prefer old games!
- andrewmcwatters 4y ago
  Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy are probably two bangers I recognize, but all the rest never caught my attention. Cyberpunk did, but I relegated it to the No Man's Sky category and never have any intention of buying it. Goodwill is a thing and losing it can permanently tarnish your reputation.
  - wan23 4y ago
    Both Cyberpunk and (especially) No Man's Sky have improved significantly from how they were at launch. It might be worth looking into their current iterations if you were interested before but disappointed.
    - red-iron-pine 4y ago
      NMS definitely, Cyberpunk... eh. Still pretty buggy, though there is talk of expansions due out later this year and that hold promise for improvements and patching.
    - andrewmcwatters 4y ago
      I think I basically settled on the idea that if a company is willing to do that to customers, I'm not interested in being one of theirs, ever. That's probably too harsh, but life is rich and there are other options.
- yread 4y ago
  Kingdom Come Deliverance came out in 2018, too and is a very good (and unique) game if you can get into it Maybe E3 found out Warhorse is not ready yet to announce KCD 2 so they decided it's not worth it to organize the whole thing
christophilus 4y ago
I really enjoyed Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Galaxy. Nintendo still has it. Other than that, I’ve put way too many hours into Dead Cells. Outside of Nintendo, indie games are where it’s at.
the_only_law 4y ago
The recent trend for me is games that look amazing on paper (in pre-release dev-diaries, etc.) but then fall completely flat in release, often being much more shallow then I expected and more than often broken, barely playable, and just disappointing. I’ve almost written a couple rant on this threads about some of the recent PDX titles, thankfully, I don’t feel like trying to type all that in the little HN text box.
otikik 4y ago
Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is coming on May 12th, that's the only big banger I care about right now.
umvi 4y ago
From Software still makes fantastic games. Elden Ring, Sekiro (my personal fav), Dark Souls, Bloodborne, etc.
- mrguyorama 4y ago
  They make the same game that everyone loves in a hundred different coats of paint. I hope they bring bloodborn to PC, it's the only palette swap of the genre I'm interested in. Or maybe they will finally bring back Armored Core.
  - crysin 4y ago
    Do I have some news for you! https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/armored-core/armored-core-vi-fires-of-rubicon https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/armored-core/armored-core-vi-fi...
gknoy 4y ago
I agree with many of the others, but I'd also like to mention Horizon Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima, etc. HZD was one of the best single player games I've played in a long time -- satisfying gameplay loop, and a story that was engaging. I haven't played Ghost of Tsushima yet (I only have a PC), but I feel like that's another good quality game contender that I will enjoy (even if I never finish). In contrast, I'm currently playing Jedi: Fallen Order. In many ways, it's _really good_: Good voice acting, motion capture, interesting story. Combat is hard (for me) and satisfying, similar to the Witcher (but not as satisfying as Souls games), but it somehow _really bugs me_ that the items I collect are all cosmetic items that don't matter, and that the things to climb or wall-run on are very specific and jarringly placed things (versus breath of the wild, where everything can be climbed). The game feels "on rails" in a way that the others don't, and I disliked that, but it is certainly delivering on the story and combat front.
hedora 4y ago
Switch is a goldmine of excellent nintendo-produced titles. Also, they have an indy store that surpasses the one the xbox 360 had during its heyday. I haven’t noticed any pay to win bullshit, though mario oddessy has started advertising amiibos at us.
majewsky 4y ago
If you want a relatively new game that is maybe not a AAA release, but a big banger, go play Outer Wilds. It's from 2019, so relatively new compared to "a decade ago", and it changed my perception of what games can be. (Important warning: If you do decide to play it, go in as blind as possible. It's a game where you progress by gaining knowledge about the world, so any spoilers are incredibly catastrophic.)

flohofwoe 4y ago

Gaming has just become so popular that the top played games are a rather predictable "average" of the different tastes of a vast variety of gamers. But the average is always also quite boring (unless you're young and haven't seen this stuff yet a thousand times). You need to look into the niches and at the "genre edges" to find the interesting stuff. Especially Steam is full of really great "niche games". Just don't look at the top 10, you actively have to find the good stuff. Same with music btw.

web3-is-a-scam 4y ago

Elden Ring was a huge banger for me, probably the best game I've played in at least a decade and it absorbed my life for MONTHS. And it certainly doesn't have any of the stuff you're complaining about.

epolanski 4y ago

Elden Ring is one of the few AAAs that can be considered a banger by all metrics, but it too comes from a decade-old formula at this point.

klabb3 4y ago
Death strandning was great. But a while ago now..
Ntrails 4y ago
It was my first game of the genre and holy shit fo I not get it at all. The only aspect I loved was the world visuals/themes/area transitions. Actual gameplay was not really fun for me
- extr 4y ago
  Same here. I bought it on the strength of the rave reviews and found it incredibly boring. The world has a cool vibe but the gameplay and mechanics are so so clunky. Coming from the latest Zelda game, which was kinda similar (open world, you have a horse) but absolutely 11/10 spectacular in every respect, it felt like a huge step down.
  - bmitc 4y ago
    I feel that Elden Ring is a bit too open for a From Software game. Dark Souls, Bloodborne, and Sekiro, which I all love but suck at, are all a bit more directional in terms of where you need to go. You can "crawl" an area a bit more, whereas Elden Ring just feels too expansive. I'm often asking "is this where I'm even supposed to be at?". That can be fun in a mystical sort of way, but it makes it hard to even know what I should be working towards. Plus, their RPG elements run deep, and you need to basically live on the forums and wiki to understand how to piece together a build. Winging it is fine, but it usually means you've stunted yourself in some unclear way. This is why I also really like Sekiro, which removed some of that.
  - hamsalot 4y ago
    There's a T-shirt with 'I didn't beat dark souls' on the front of it and on the back, "it has a lot of design problems that make it player-unfriendly and difficult to enjoy but the culture surrounding it actively ignores these elements in favor of hyping it up as the hardest video game ever (a title it definitely doesn't have a claim to) and claiming that anyone who takes issue with problems must just be bad at video games in general". The joke is that most peoples first time with a FromSoft game results in them thinking/feeling that the game is bad/boring. I'm not saying you're wrong for not enjoying it, I'm just saying you have a lot of company.
  - mths 4y ago
    > the gameplay and mechanics are so so clunky This is a feature though, it's what makes it unique and great. I had the exact same impression when I first tried Demon's Souls as it came out around 2010. I knew the game was supposed to be hard, but it felt hard for no reason, as if they had made it clunky just to mess with you. I ignored the whole souls genre until I finally picked up the remake on the PS5 about a year ago, and it all clicked this time. It's clunky in an effort to be more realistic than many superficially similar games, and that requires you to play it differently too. Your attacks have a wind-up and cool-down period, you got stats preventing you from carrying too much gear and get even clunkier, endurance stopping you from maneuvering like a mad man etc. All these limitations are there to force you to be more strategic with your leveling, equipment, fighting, .. They're very deliberate and not "design problems that make it player-unfriendly". It's not for everyone, but it's a different experience many clearly find rewarding. And honestly, the games aren't even that hard once you grasp these concepts.
markeibes 4y ago
Would be nice if it had a story or characters.

pawelduda 4y ago

Totally opposite for me. Getting a PS5 alone gave me access to such a large backlog of great games. I don't think any of them had microtransactions, at least I never purchased anything else than the game itself. I'm mostly thinking PS (ex)-exclusives, you can enjoy many of them on PC as well nowadays.

nickthegreek 4y ago

Cyberpunk was the last banger for me. But I’m excited for Diablo 4 and Baldurs Gate 3 this year. Elden Ring was huge and the new Zelda is gonna be big.

superchig 4y ago
I don't mean to single you out, as these games are (probably) going to be awesome. I've played Cyberpunk, and I'll almost certainly play Baldur's Gate 3. But isn't it interesting that 3 of the 5 games you've mentioned are sequels, and one of the remaining ones is part of a well-established formula? It reminds me of the Age of Average, recently posted to HN: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35355703 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35355703
- lelandfe 4y ago
  I wouldn't consider Baldur's Gate 3 a sequel in any meaningful way beyond its name.
  - peterashford 4y ago
    I would. The engine is clearly hugely upgraded and they've definitely added a lot to the formula, but they've also kept a lot about what people loved of the original games. I'm really looking forward to the final release
    - lelandfe 4y ago
      Huh, I don't see any of the original in it. Aesthetics, gameplay, and even tone of the game are all way more Divinity than anything Black Isle ever made. What of the originals do you still see in Larian's new one?
      - peterashford 4y ago
        Hmmm.... I played through both Baulder's Gate, BG2 and a bunch of the associated games - Icewind Dale etc. Had a very familiar feel to me. Obviously your milage varies

lelandfe 4y ago

Variously from the last few years: Cyberpunk, Hogwarts Legacy, God of War Ragnarok, Elden Ring. Red Dead 2 in 2018. Atomic Heart was promoted like a banger but I bounced off of it. Starfield is coming soon, as is the new Legend of Zelda. I suspect you might just prefer old games!

andrewmcwatters 4y ago
Elden Ring and Hogwarts Legacy are probably two bangers I recognize, but all the rest never caught my attention. Cyberpunk did, but I relegated it to the No Man's Sky category and never have any intention of buying it. Goodwill is a thing and losing it can permanently tarnish your reputation.
- wan23 4y ago
  Both Cyberpunk and (especially) No Man's Sky have improved significantly from how they were at launch. It might be worth looking into their current iterations if you were interested before but disappointed.
  - red-iron-pine 4y ago
    NMS definitely, Cyberpunk... eh. Still pretty buggy, though there is talk of expansions due out later this year and that hold promise for improvements and patching.
  - andrewmcwatters 4y ago
    I think I basically settled on the idea that if a company is willing to do that to customers, I'm not interested in being one of theirs, ever. That's probably too harsh, but life is rich and there are other options.
yread 4y ago
Kingdom Come Deliverance came out in 2018, too and is a very good (and unique) game if you can get into it Maybe E3 found out Warhorse is not ready yet to announce KCD 2 so they decided it's not worth it to organize the whole thing

christophilus 4y ago

I really enjoyed Breath of the Wild and Super Mario Galaxy. Nintendo still has it. Other than that, I’ve put way too many hours into Dead Cells. Outside of Nintendo, indie games are where it’s at.

the_only_law 4y ago

The recent trend for me is games that look amazing on paper (in pre-release dev-diaries, etc.) but then fall completely flat in release, often being much more shallow then I expected and more than often broken, barely playable, and just disappointing. I’ve almost written a couple rant on this threads about some of the recent PDX titles, thankfully, I don’t feel like trying to type all that in the little HN text box.

otikik 4y ago

Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is coming on May 12th, that's the only big banger I care about right now.

umvi 4y ago

From Software still makes fantastic games. Elden Ring, Sekiro (my personal fav), Dark Souls, Bloodborne, etc.

mrguyorama 4y ago
They make the same game that everyone loves in a hundred different coats of paint. I hope they bring bloodborn to PC, it's the only palette swap of the genre I'm interested in. Or maybe they will finally bring back Armored Core.
- crysin 4y ago
  Do I have some news for you! https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/armored-core/armored-core-vi-fires-of-rubicon https://en.bandainamcoent.eu/armored-core/armored-core-vi-fi...

gknoy 4y ago

I agree with many of the others, but I'd also like to mention Horizon Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima, etc. HZD was one of the best single player games I've played in a long time -- satisfying gameplay loop, and a story that was engaging. I haven't played Ghost of Tsushima yet (I only have a PC), but I feel like that's another good quality game contender that I will enjoy (even if I never finish). In contrast, I'm currently playing Jedi: Fallen Order. In many ways, it's _really good_: Good voice acting, motion capture, interesting story. Combat is hard (for me) and satisfying, similar to the Witcher (but not as satisfying as Souls games), but it somehow _really bugs me_ that the items I collect are all cosmetic items that don't matter, and that the things to climb or wall-run on are very specific and jarringly placed things (versus breath of the wild, where everything can be climbed). The game feels "on rails" in a way that the others don't, and I disliked that, but it is certainly delivering on the story and combat front.

hedora 4y ago

Switch is a goldmine of excellent nintendo-produced titles. Also, they have an indy store that surpasses the one the xbox 360 had during its heyday. I haven’t noticed any pay to win bullshit, though mario oddessy has started advertising amiibos at us.

majewsky 4y ago

If you want a relatively new game that is maybe not a AAA release, but a big banger, go play Outer Wilds. It's from 2019, so relatively new compared to "a decade ago", and it changed my perception of what games can be. (Important warning: If you do decide to play it, go in as blind as possible. It's a game where you progress by gaining knowledge about the world, so any spoilers are incredibly catastrophic.)