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- Square Enix invests in Playtron for their Linux-based PlaytronOS - first Alpha out now
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The games don't need to have been released this year, they just need to be playable on Linux in some way - whether that's an emulated 1985 Famicom game, a 1990s Windows release played through a compatibility-layer or an engine-replacement, or a 2023 native Linux title, it's all about your favourite gaming experiences on our OS of choice throughout this year.
What were your top games in 2023? Share away!
These are mine, starting with my personal game-of-the-year, which isn't going to remotely surprise anybody on GOL who knows me.
Pengling's Game of the Year
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Super Bomberman R 2 (Proton)
After several years of disappointments contributed to me leaving consoles behind, it was beyond refreshing for a game that I'd eagerly waited for to actually deliver - and in spades, too! A new entry in the long under-served maze-chase genre, Super Bomberman R 2 sees Bomberman and his eccentric siblings - a family of cute bomb-making robots who act as heroic protectors of the universe, otherwise known as the "Super Bomberman Rangers" (all perfectly-cast, and perfectly hitting the series' long-lived Saturday-morning-cartoon/animated-movie feel in the comic-book-styled cutscenes) - return to prevent a mysterious force from ending all of existence. Of course, all of the famous multiplayer modes return as well, along with a new addition called Castle, which is basically like the comedic Japanese gameshow Takeshi's Castle, but with added bombs.
I waited for 15 months for this game to release - the longest that I've ever waited for any game - and as soon as it was out, it gripped me like nothing else ever has, and it still hasn't let go. I'll be playing this one for years to come, and it turned out to be a fitting release for the Bomberman series' 40th anniversary, too!
And now for the best of the rest!
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Ape Out (Proton)
A procedurally-generated modern maze-chase game where a powerful-but-outnumbered gorilla must survive and escape from numerous scenarios. The game does a great job of making you feel mighty (you can easily reduce enemy humans to a bloody splatter), whilst also challenging you because you're outgunned - literally! The jazzy soundtrack responds to your actions, and also ties in with the game's striking art-style - each "world" is instead an "album", complete with record-sleeve art. Even though it can be quite difficult, it has that classic "One more go!" feel to it, and that keeps hold of you right until the very end, when the game pulls out all the stops for a super-difficult bonus stage which is unlocked after you've beaten everything else. And as if that's not enough, it got a charming NES-style Donkey Kong Jr.-inspired sequel in the form of Ape Out Jr., found in the parody-game compilation, Devolver Bootleg.
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Bomberman Hero (Nintendo 64; Emulated)
The only 3D platformer in the Bomberman series; I didn't expect a lot out of this one because I don't enjoy 3D-platformers 99% of the time. However, Bomberman Hero pleasantly surprised me by having that lightning-in-a-bottle combination of good handling, fun moves, fitting animations, and good game-design that adds up to a great experience regardless of genre. As far as the gameplay goes, thankfully this one hews closer to titles like Crash Bandicoot and Croc: Legend of the Gobbos by opting for boxed-in and usually bite-sized levels instead of having you repeatedly revisit large barren spaces, and it also has a selection of brief jetpack, propeller, submarine, and snowboard stages, so as to break up the platforming that makes up most of the game. It's got a lot of personality and charm, and is also a little bit of a Star Wars tribute here and there (keeping in mind that the remastered versions of the original trilogy were a recent big deal when this game was made). It lives up to its name by really nailing the feeling of tagging along on one of Bomberman's solo hero-missions! It would be great to see a new installment like this, made with modern game-design sensibilities, and including the rest of Bomberman's family to add even more variety.
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Castlevania: Symphony of the Night (PlayStation; Emulated)
Every 100 years, the eldest child of the Belmont clan is fated to fight and defeat Count Dracula when he returns to life - but not this time! Instead, Richter Belmont chooses to side with Dracula, and it falls to a man named Alucard - Dracula's son who has rebelled against his father's evil ways - to investigate, put things right, and defeat Dracula this time around. This is the game that singlehandedly created the "Metroidvania" subgenre, by combining Konami's Castlevania with elements of Nintendo's Metroid series, and though I'm usually not a fan of Metroidvania titles, this is one of the rare ones that I found to be well-designed and to have good landmarks with which to find your way around the vast setting. It also controls really well and just feels plain fun to play, and the feeling of progression as Alucard grows more powerful and learns various transformations makes you feel like a real hero - I can't even quibble with the difficulty being lower than in past titles, because a lot of those were simply unreasonable in their design, and the series putting that behind it was a good thing. An absolute must-play.
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Doom (1993) (Proton)
The vast majority of first-person games give me motion-sickness, so I only experienced the original Doom for the first time by a playing a little bit at a time after getting it in a mystery Steam-key bundle. I ended up absolutely loving it (and am currently working my way through the second game in the same way) - the action is fun and well-paced, and mostly flows really well, occasionally broken up by some mazes and the like, and the atmosphere and design of the whole thing was simply great. It was really fun to finally see why Doom is considered such an important and damn-near-timeless game, and the strong, comic-bookish art-direction has helped it to age really well visually, too.
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Downwell (Proton)
A procedurally-generated roguelite downward-platformer, Downwell sees a guy dive into a well in search of treasure, with only a pair of Gunboots for defense against what's below. When airborne, you have a limited number of shots that you can use, and these are replenished when you touch the ground again. Your goal is to progress as far as possible, whilst gathering upgrades to aid you on your quest, and collecting gems. The minimalist art-style is charming in a Game Boy-ish sort of way, and there are various palettes to unlock (including ones that are a nod to both the Game Boy and the Super Game Boy add-on for the SNES). It's very addictive, and considering how cheap it is even when it's not in a sale, it's well worth picking up for playing in short bursts when you have a few free moments. Also, like Ape Out, above, Downwell got a NES-style sequel, Shootyboots, in the Devolver Bootleg compilation.
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Frog Detective 1 + 2 + 3 (Proton)
A silly little trilogy of short detective-game spoofs, featuring a frog as a detective, hence the name. Each game is a chilled-out and family-friendly parody of the detective genre, with simple puzzles and amusing, tongue-in-cheek writing, coupled with proper detective-movie-sounding music as a counterpoint to the goofy concept. Frog Detective himself is a charming and somewhat self-deprecating fellow, and you'll definitely grow attached to him and the oddball people that he meets over the course of his adventures. The third game wraps up the trilogy nicely - and has the artistic integrity to be the end of the story instead of driving it into the ground with further unnecessary follow-ups. The games all cost only a few pounds or so, and only have a short runtime of about 30 minutes to one hour each, so they're a great fit if you just want something quick to play, too.
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FUR Squadron (Proton)
One of several Star Fox-like games to appear on the market after Nintendo stopped making that series, FUR Squadron puts its own cast of humanoid-animal-pilots into a setting not often seen in this type of rail-shooter: Metal Gear Solid-style VR training! The story sees Blaze Mustela (ferret), Kiro Nax (fruit-bat/flying-fox), and Axel Mex (axolotl) training during peace-time to face off against a potential future threat, only for things to go terribly wrong, leaving the pilots having to find a way out of being trapped in their own training simulation. It has a cool-looking vapourwave aesthetic and nice character artwork, and the lowest difficulty-setting makes for a nice, short-but-sweet game, with the higher ones being much more challenging. It pays tribute to Star Fox whilst also being its own thing, and has done well enough that a prequel, titled FUR Squadron Phoenix, is now in the works.
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Layers of Fear (2016) (Native Linux, but you might want to use Proton to avoid both cosmetic and gameplay-impacting rendering bugs in the native version)
Venture into a twisted, ever-changing mansion in order to try to uncover the unsettling past of a painter who's trying to complete his magnum opus. The game is mainly a walking-simulator, so it's quite low-stress for a horror-game, with the main scares coming from unsettling visions and flashbacks, and some well-implemented minor jump-scares. Before you begin, you're told "This may be our game, but it is your journey.", which is a great way of describing the whole experience.
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Mia and the Dragon Princess (Proton)
A modern FMV-game that plays out as an hour-long action-movie. In it, ordinary London barmaid Mia is dragged into an adventure when a mysterious woman with possible links to a lost pirate treasure turns up at the same time as a group of thugs trying to find that treasure are trying to get Mia's boss to sell his bar. There are several branching story-paths and different endings to unlock depending on the choices that you make at key points in the story, and after your first playthrough you get a handy Story Tree option in the main menu in order to keep track of this. The acting is good, the story is fun and knows when to double down on the action or add light-hearted humour, and it's fun to see what the different options will lead to. Mia and the Dragon Princess is completely different to the FMV-games that we saw on the likes of the TurboCD and Mega CD a few decades ago, and is well worth experiencing.
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Pizza Tower (Proton)
The best platformer featuring an Italian protagonist in many years, hands down! Pizza Tower sees pizzeria-owner Peppino Spaghetti scaling the titular tower in order to save his business from destruction by the evil giant floating pizza, Pizzaface. It's well-tuned with tight controls, and is inspired strongly by the later entries in Nintendo's now-abandoned Wario Land series, plus influences from various 1990s cartoons and comics, giving it a surreal and chaotic feel all its own. It plays great, it feels great, it sounds great, and it's designed great. Unforgettable.
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Placid Plastic Duck Simulator (Proton)
This silly little game does exactly what it says on the tin - you get to experience life from the perspective of fun toy ducks in various chilled-out themed swimming-pools. It's bizarrely compelling for a completely passive game, and watching out for unique interactions between particular types of ducks and trying to collect them all is fun to fill a few minutes here and there. The game is super-cheap, and so are its DLC packs, which periodically come along and add a bunch more ducks to the game. It's very much a spiritual successor to titles such as Little Computer People, Dogz, and MOPy Fish.
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SegaSonic The Hedgehog (Arcade; Emulated)
I was fascinated by this trackball-driven 1993 arcade-game as a kid, as it got a bit of press coverage but didn't get a wide release. A cabinet existed in the UK, originally in Bournemouth and then later moved to London, but when I visited those locations it was out-of-commission each time! I finally got to play it in emulated form this year, and it didn't disappoint - you pick from one of three characters (Sonic The Hedgehog, Ray the Flying Squirrel, or Mighty the Armadillo), and have to try to escape from a trap-laden island. It supports up to three players, and actually handles surprisingly well with a d-pad under emulation (trying to use analogue inputs caused problems for me, so I gave up on that). It's a short-but-sweet and very charming game that was well worth the 30-year wait to play!
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Super Destronaut DX (Proton)
After being disappointed to discover that Square-Enix-owned Taito didn't bother to release Space Invaders Invincible Collection/Space Invaders Forever on Steam (they only released Space Invaders Extreme there a long time ago, but that one doesn't appeal to me), I opted to pick up this low-cost indie title instead, and I was really glad that I did! Super Destronaut DX has an appealing retrowave aesthetic with fitting music, and adds some new twists to the Invaders formula, such as different aliens having different weapon-types, alien ships sometimes falling out of the sky after defeat so that you can shoot them again repeatedly for additional points, and crashed ships sometimes littering the ground which you have to avoid whilst also avoiding enemy fire. In addition to its standard arcade-mode, it also has a selection of increasingly-difficult challenges, which ultimately get into addictive teeth-grindingly-annoying-but-still-really-fun "One more go! I swear I'll get it this time!" territory, but don't outstay their welcome. It must have done well, as it has an upcoming first-person sequel, Super Destronaut Land Wars, on the way, too! It's well worth your time if you want a Space Invaders-style game with a modern twist. The only gotcha is that, if playing on a Steam Deck, you'll need to set the resolution to 1280x720 the first time that you run it, instead of the 1280x800 that it defaults to, or else the game will be slightly zoomed-in and certain elements will get cut off at the sides of the screen.
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Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge (Native Linux)
A modern beat-'em-up with slick pixel-art, set in the universe of the 1980s/1990s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles animated series, where you take your pick from various popular characters and prevent Shredder from carrying out his revenge, as the title suggests. The presentation is amazing, in-game and out, even down to the game opening out with a modern re-recording of the iconic theme-song with newly-produced traditional animation to go with it, and all of the original voice-actors returning to their classic roles! The gameplay is equally polished and smooth, playing out like you remember the games of old playing, even if some of those no longer quite live up to the memories. An absolute must if you enjoy the genre!
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Quick rules...... No games from last years list....... No mods...... And no games from December 1st 2023 onwards........
All games listed in alphabetical order.......
Alien vs. Predator (1994 Capcom) - Arcade - Beat 'em up
My second favourite arcade beat 'em up on all time....... Alien vs. Predator has everything you need for a great time....... Wonderful graphics....... Excellent sounds....... Awesome controls........ Wide variety of moves and enemies....... 4 characters with very different move set and play style........ No matter the occasion you can never go wrong with Alien vs. Predator on MAME/FBN........
Castle of Illusion Starring Mickey Mouse (1990 Sega) - Sega Mega Drive - Platformer
Im no fan of Disney...... At all....... But this game really surprised me this year....... Its a very very well done game with excellent graphics and music....... The sprite animation is top notch...... The levels are fun and very bright and colourful....... The storyline is very lacking and wouldnt be allowed to me done today........ Its a good fun family friendly platforming romp....... Fun for the whole family....... 73%.........
Duck Hunt (1984 Nintnedo) - Nintendo Entertainment System - Shooting gallery (Light Gun)
A good fun very simple game....... Even playing with a mouse on an emulator is great fun....... Back in the day on a CRT it was amazing....... The graphics are again nice for the NES...... Sounds are really nice....... Nice cheery chip tunes are well done as well....... That damn dogs laugh is annoyingly brilliant........ Even if you dont have a CRT ad a light gun..... Give it a play on an emulator with a mouse...... Its still great fun.........
Garou: Mark of the Wolves (1999 SNK) - Arcade - Fighting
Easily my all time favourite fighting game...... Typical excellent Neo-Geo graphics and sprite work really show off this game so well....... Lots a great looking stages as well as a wide variety of characters and play styles....... Storyline isnt great but its a fighting game....... Who plays them for the story???........ Just beat the ever loving crap out of your opponent thats all we play them for and the fighting action is absolutely top notch.......
Insector X (1989 Taito) - Shoot 'em up - Horizontal
A very weird and wonderful shoot 'em up........ Fly around and shoot insects with insecticide...... The visuals are really nice with a very cartoon look to them..... Lots of big eyed cartoon like sprites with very colourful and nicely detailed background...... The bosses are big and nicely detailed as well..... Sounds are ok...... The hitbox is also a good size as well...... While not a top tier shooter...... Insector X does offer enough different to put on your playlist........
Metamorphic Force (1993 Konami) - Arcade - Beat 'em up
Another great arcade beat 'em up....... You basically play as a Brave Star like character who can transform into humanoid animals....... Bear, Panther, Bull and Wolf....... Enemy variety is nice and just enough to keep the game fresh for the most part...... Controls are nice and tight...... And the visuals are nice too....... If you do indeed play it..... Play the Japanese version....... The US version added a crap boss rush towards the end and has a always depleting life bar to munch as many quarters from you as possible......... PLAY THE JAPANESE VERSION!!!!.......
NASCAR Heat 5 (2020 Motorsport Games) - Steam - Sports (Racing)
Showing my inner Billy Bob Cooter redneck here....... But this game is probably the best modern NASCAR game you can play...... Controls are nice when setup properly........ Graphics are decent and the cars handle well again.... When setup properly...... The default gamepad settings and car setups are rather bad....... The game runs fine on Linux with Steams Proton layer...... So issues with that........ Its not as good as NASCAR Racing 2003 season but it is a whole lot easier to get working.......
NASCAR: Dirt to Daytona (2002 Infogrames) - Sony PlayStation 2 - Sports (Racing)
Continuing on my my inner Billy Bob Cooter redneck spree........ As far as im concerned this is the best NASCAR game the consoles....... Its a great fun game with lots of depth and a fantastic career mode....... Dirt, Modifieds, Trucks and the Cup Cars are all in the game...... And they all handle just fine with the default setups...... Controls are great and action is intense...... The only issue I have with the game is that you cant play any car on any track...... And its missing a few real life race tracks thanks to licencing issues...... NASCAR Dirt to Daytona is also the home of the Dick Trickle playthrough........
Sam & Max: Hit the Road (1993 LucasArts) - PC (ScummVM) - Adventure
My all time favourite point and click adventure game....... Play as a humanoid suit wearing detective dog with a psycho murderous rabbit thing side kick....... The writing is really well done and so are most of the puzzles...... There are a few stupid puzzles but for the most part they are all fine...... Game looks nice with an over the top cartoon/caricature look and a nice sense of humour...... The sound is excellent when the Roland MT-32 is enabled....... Voice acting is also really good for a game of this era....... Environments are very well done too...... Its a all round great game.......
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (1992 Konami) - Super Nintendo Entertainment System - Beat 'em up
I chose the SNES version over the arcade version as the SNES adds more to the game while losing almost none of what made the arcade version so great........ The extra levels are fun and add nicely to the storyline without feeling like a tacked on after taught just to make a certain runtime..... Controls are nice and tight and the graphics are great with good use of Mode 7....... Sounds are great as is usual with the SNES....... With some really nice up beat chip tunes....... Do you have what it takes to rescue April O'Neil for the millionth time???........
Warhammer 40,000: Boltgun (2023 Focus Entertainment) - Steam – First Person Shooter
Boomer shooters rejoice...... WH40K Boltgun is a fantastic game...... Fast paced....... High action...... Low storyline...... And lots and lots of pixels to kill..... They did a great job with the look of it...... It looks just like a build engine game...... With very nice and detailed level design and the enemy models are very nice as well...... I dont think the cut scenes worked with Steams Proton layer when I played it...... But a storyline in a boomer shooter is like having a deep and meaningful conversation with a prostitute....... A waste of time and money........ I just want to kill heretic scum!!!......
Windjammers (1994 Data East) - Arcade - Sports (Frisbee)
The name might sound like a euphemism for a trapped turd....... But it hides a very nice and well rounded game...... The object is simple enough..... Throw the Frisbee into the goal and score points...... The gameplay is fast and frenetic..... With the AI getting ridiculously hard in the later matches which will munch all your quarters........ Tactics and timing is whats needed to pull off the perfect super move to beat your opponent....... And its very rewarding when you finally do it........
WRC 10 FIA World Rally Championship (2021 Nacon) - Steam - Sports (Racing)
Get down and dirty with this very good rally game...... Lots of cars...... Lots of rallies........ Lots of fun....... Some of the car models and engine sounds are a bit weak...... But the rally stages are excellent with awesome attention to detail with both the routes and the visuals....... No two counties look or feel the same...... As they did a wonderful job with the visuals to differentiate the rallies..... Plays great with Steams Proton layer...... Just remember to change the graphics in the games menu from DX12 to DX11 or you will have stuttering issues....... The controls are really good even on a gamepad but just like NASCAR Heat 5...... Adjustments are needed in the controller settings menu to get a good feel of the car.....
And that is my Dirty Bakers Dozen of good games I have played this year.......
Thank you Pengling for making the thread again this year......... I look forward to trying to cull the good games down to 13 again next year...... It was really hard to do this year and a lot of really good games just missed out........
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Also Dead Cells. Still playing, still not regretting a second of it.
My GOTY for 2023 is The Talos Principle 2. The first one was among my favourites way back and this one didn't disappoint.
My long time favourite game is still Factorio. Awaiting the release of the expansion next year. Hopefully.
And then there VR rhythm games that I try to play at least once a week. Gotta burn those extra calories!
Groove Gunner - Shooting targets and blocking bullets to music. Steep learning curve, but the mechanics are fun. Not enough music, so I am adding custom maps myself.
Audica - Shooting rhythm game with various mechanics. Feels really good once you get decent at it. Very steep learning curve. Plenty of music available as customs.
Synth Riders - Hit the incoming targets. By far the most physically demanding rhythm game. Probably the second most popular VR rhythm game after the one that shall not be named. Lots of fun. Much more approachable than the shooting games, but still has a high skill ceiling. Lots of music available.
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Interesting mix of exploration, crafting, monster taming/battling, dating(?), deck-building game.
SÆLIG
I got married and had 11 children before the developer capped the birth rate. 10/10
Dome Keeper
Nice time sink, although I suck at using the sword dome. Mostly play on Steam Deck.
Vampire Survivors
Another nice time sink. Mostly play on Steam Deck.
Dwarf Fortress
Had to include this one, even though the Steam version doesn't match up with the old version for me. I've only played this version for four hours, but I have hundreds of hours on the old version. I just can't get used to the new controls. But hey, at least all those naysayers who swore the graphics were the only reason they couldn't play DF don't have that excuse any more. :D
Roots of Pacha
Very Bokujō Monogatari-esque game, mostly played on the Deck while I was in Japan earlier this year.
Kubifaktorium
Fun little pixel/block based city builder.
Bendy and the Ink Machine
Cutesy horror game, cool art style.
Sail Forth
Toonified ocean exploration with boats and cannons.
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Crusader Kings 3: Tours & Tournaments
The 2nd major expansion for CK3 warranted starting a new campaign (which I've yet to complete). With more stuff to do during peace time, it takes even longer. Linux native, too!
Chained Echoes
A re-imagining of a 16bit era JRPG, with native Linux support. I'm not much into these, aside from the pixel art, and for a bit of nostalgia, but that's the second one I actually finished. The first was Ara Fell.
Baldur’s Gate 3
Not quite sure I'll be able to complete this in 2023, but after around 200 hours I only have a few companion quests to wrap up and the final bits of the main quest. Great fun overall. Runs reasonably well with Wine, but had the occasional hiccup.
All of those were incredible time sinks, so there wasn't really much else I played besides. Kentucky Route Zero, Mask of the Rose and The Invincible were the ones I finished, but none of them played in the same league. Some others I started, but got bored with quickly. I really did want to play Sunday Gold, but did not get it working. Maybe next year.
Also postponed to next year, but certainly a top three contender if I had found the time to play more than a few hours: Sea of Stars.
And finally, as honorable mention, Mini Motorways. I did not play it that much this year, but I sure did a few rounds and it's so incredibly relaxing, yet also incredibly addictive. Definitely in the "just one more turn" category! Even though it's realtime with pause! ;-)
Last edited by kaiman on 12 December 2023 at 7:21 pm UTC
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EA Sports WRC - I'm Biased towards rally games and the game has loads of small annoying bugs, but the core gameplay is super solid. There are loads of tracks and today (14th december 2023) there will be extra new Rally with 12 stages added to the game, That makes it 19 different Locations with each having 12 stages. Loads of cars also. Online Clubs are fun to participate in. Works very well with my Logitech G920 Wheel.
Farlight 84 - Free to play Battle Royale, that feels like mobile game, But i was suprised how good it actually is. Gunplay is simple but solid. It's kinda stupid game but since its free and if you have few friends to play with, its quite fun.
Hunt: Showdown - Extraction Battle Royale kinda. Recently started to play. Haven't had too much experience with it yet, but so far looks quite interesting. Gunplay is solid, environments and Sound design are top notch.
Warhammer Online: Return of Reckoning - My go to PvP MMORPG. Old game but still the best PvP MMORPG out there imo. Player collision, oldschool tab target with loads of abilities, classes etc.
Max Payne 3 - While i was skeptical about this game, it wasnt bad at all. It's a bit dumbed down version of Max payne from the first ones, but the stupid over the top action is still there and story is quite typical action movie stuff that fits well with the game. Took around 9 hours to complete.
There are probably more games i played and liked, but i can't remember atm...
Last edited by Xpander on 16 December 2023 at 3:29 pm UTC
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Everspace 2 is also good fun.
I didn't play Phantom Liberty yet, but I'm sure it's going to be good.
Last edited by Shmerl on 15 December 2023 at 6:04 am UTC
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I also replayed Celeste this year, which is one of my favorite ever games. It's the polar opposite to npckc's games in that the gameplay is very challenging, but the storytelling feels similar. I don't think there's a game out there that better marries gameplay and storytelling, to the point that there is no distinction at some points.
I replayed Save the Date a few months ago for the first time in about 10 years. It's still as awesome as I remember.
Wait, is the year over already?
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I think not only it's a great game, but absolute proof that Good game design is timeless. It's extremely faithful to the 1994 version, even eschewing some modern conveniences, but it's still a great game and great atmosphere.
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