A bit of a weird title, but basically what’s a game that’s more than a year old but still considered “modern” that you love? There’s no real strict definition for modern, I’d just like to see some discussion around great games that aren’t quite classics yet (but probably will be one day).
The nature of this community typically attracts discussion around decade-old games (which is what I mostly play too), but I’d like to see some newer (but not too new) games on this post.
Rimworld.
Satisfactory. It’s been in early access for a few years now, 2019 I think? At the beginning of this year (2024) they announced the next update would be the 1.0 release. I’ve been playing it on/off for years, especially recently with all the strides they’ve made in development.
The game is like Factorio, but presented as an FPS. You get dropped onto a planet in a pod straight out of Halo: ODST by a space-future megacorp called Ficsit, with the goal of harvesting the planet’s resources for Ficsit off-planet divisions.
I have almost 1500hrs in Satisfactory since I got it, there’s no shortage of gameplay. Coffee Stain (devs) have been posting videos regularly, updating the community on new/discontinued features, revamped recipes and production rates, and even just being silly as much as being helpful, to the point where Coffee Stain is my go-to example of good devteam-community interaction.
Oh, and it also has a really good modding community, so if there’s anything that’s not in game, that you want in game, it’s probably already been made by one or two modders.
And trains! Those are the best part. Both a joy, and a nightmare.
Voices of the Void, slow horror
Subnautica
Recently got Mad Max from GOG. It’s pretty great for Open World car combat and Arkham style brawling. It also runs great. Too bad it didn’t get more attention.
Kerbal Space Program
Cataclysm DDA, if it counts. There’s usually a lot of time between stable releases, and by the time they come out, it usually feels like a completely different game.
I have just gotten into baldurs gate 3 and holy shit it has consumed my soul.
… Which is kinda fitting considering the themes of the game
Stranger of Paradise Final Fantasy Origin
Waited for the steam release and played through it almost fully with a friend in co-op, all DLC’s included. My GOTY last year. Fantastic gameplay (shoutouts to Team Ninja), with a story that starts off as a shitpost but evolves into (in my opinion) something really beautiful, I can only recommend this game to any Final Fantasy fan. Having played through FF1 is not required, but makes it a little bit more fun. Best protagonist.
Trine 5 was probably the best Trine to date. It‘s almost a year old, but already discounted to 15ish bucks in sales. Took a friend and I 20 hours to platinum and we had so much fun cheesing the puzzles and doing stupid stuff. I wish there just was no combat in the game tbh, it‘s just there to gatekeep you from having fun with the puzzles lol. I also wish there had been more achievements related to playing a level in a specific way that you gotta figure out. There‘s one for crossing all rivers in a specific map without touching water, and one where you gotta beat any map without destroying boxes. These two were a lotta fun to do.
I was also obsessed with HITMAN (Jan 2022 according to Steam, was a year exclusive to EGS IIRC). Now it‘s just some crappy liveservice-esque thing, but when they actually did new maps and stuff I had tons of fun walking around the crazy detailed levels and looking for small npc skits the devs put in there, doing looney toons banana peel assassinations etc. Agent 47 being that unfeeling killing robot trying to destroy the world controlling illuminati makes all the slapstick so much funnier.
The Hex! By Daniel Mullins, of “Inscryption” game. The Hex is HORRIBLY overlooked because of its graphics, but they’re not… really… its graphics? It’s a marvel of creative game design and I love it so much. The graphics make sense almost immediately when playing. MORE PEOPLE PEAS PLAY THE HEX it is so good
Minecraft believe it or not. Every few years I come back and install a mod pack and it’s like an entirely new game almost. Plus I love the factory and automation mods. The game just never seems to die.
I keep coming back to Insurgency: Sandstorm’s PVE modes. Man, what a underrated shooter!
I wish it had some better AI enemies, though.
Vampire Survivors isn’t that old yet, right?
It’s such a good Robotron clone.
The Witcher 3. It’s not far from being 10, but got a very nice graphics update for free and has 2 DLC. The game and the DLC and the free graphics update and a very recent mod kit, all for around 10-15 USD right now on GOG . it’s a steal! I highly recommend it. It became my favorite game of all time, very fast. And it will offer around 100h, and it will also offer replayability. What is there not to like?
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