The 2026 Game Thread: You Will Own Nothing and Be Happy Edition

GodisanAtheist

GodisanAtheist

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It's that time of year folks, pick 12 games from your existing game library to download, install, and play this year.

They're all just licenses that publishers can *yoink* away at any time so might as well enjoy them.

And don't give me none of that GOG lip, they just got sold and who knows how long they'll be around for (or the quality of their service).

Currently Playing/Completed:

WH40K: DoW2: Retribution (RTS)(Completed)
Psychonauts 2 (Platformer)(Completed)
Cyberpunk 2077 (FpRPG)(Currently Playing)
Guardians of the Galaxy (TPS)(Currently Playing)

My List of 12:

Doom Eternal (FPS)
Slay The Princess (???)
Homeworld: Deserts of Kharak (RTS)
Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Metroidvania)
Psychonauts 2 (Platformer)
Persona 4 Golden (JRPG)
Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun (TBS)
RoboCop: Rogue City (FPS)
Company of Heroes (RTS)
Hue (Side Scroller)
Greedfall (RPG)
Quantum Break (TPS)
 
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Doubt I can name 12 but on my to do list are

Wow: Midnight
Last of us part II remastered
Dragon age the veilguard

Trying to finish
Doom: the dark ages
Avowed
Baldur's gate 3
and whatever get's added to Borderlands 4
 
Finishing pathfinder wrath of the righteous.

Need to do another attempt at bg3. My attention span keeps getting diverted. (Loke for the above pathfinder game) and I loose track... feels daunting to try and pick it up again from where I left off.
 
Grimlakin said:
Finishing pathfinder wrath of the righteous.

Need to do another attempt at bg3. My attention span keeps getting diverted. (Loke for the above pathfinder game) and I loose track... feels daunting to try and pick it up again from where I left off.
Click to expand...

-Yeah those mondo CRPGs are rough because as soon as you take a break it becomes a chore in and of itself to get back into it and figure out what you were doing.

I loved those games for their value and replayability back when I was a kid, but I much prefer more linear narrative driven games nowadays.
 
Grimlakin said:
Finishing pathfinder wrath of the righteous.

Need to do another attempt at bg3. My attention span keeps getting diverted. (Loke for the above pathfinder game) and I loose track... feels daunting to try and pick it up again from where I left off.
Click to expand...

I've tried numerous times to like P:WotR, but I just can't seem to catch the groove. It's not a bad game, and it has decent enough writing (at least, for the genre - what little I've witnessed), but the underlying story and the direction it takes just doesn't compel my interest enough to get invested in it. I enjoyed Pathfinder: Kingmaker well enough as long as it kept my attention, but it, too, fell by the wayside. I chalk it up to having burned out on CRPGs and having played too many to count since the early Baldur's Gate (Bioware's original) days.
 
I have a hard time getting into most CRPGs as well. Turn by turn game play just feels so slow and I get bored, and if you try to play it in real-time the mechanics are so complex (because they assume you are playing turn by turn) that I can't keep up. Dragon Age did an ok job finding a middle ground, but those have been about the only ones in recent memory that I played through.

I keep wanting to get into BG3 but the combat just keeps me out.
 
Brian_B said:
I have a hard time getting into most CRPGs as well. Turn by turn game play just feels so slow and I get bored, and if you try to play it in real-time the mechanics are so complex (because they assume you are playing turn by turn) that I can't keep up. Dragon Age did an ok job finding a middle ground, but those have been about the only ones in recent memory that I played through.

I keep wanting to get into BG3 but the combat just keeps me out.
Click to expand...
See I've done the free flow combat in Pathfinder WOTR, but I prefer turn by turn to fully exploit capabilities especially of spellcasters. Otherwise they just spam the spell you've selected until they are out then go with whatever weapon they have equipped. Turn by turn feels more like JRPG combat to me and I'm cool with that.
 
Beat the Imperial Guard campaign for DoW2 Retribution.

Fun and easy enough, nothing to write home about. One of those "one size fits all playable factions" type thing which is fine, the Imp Guard campaign seemed to fit into the plot fairly nicely.

I'll leave it installed and at least goof around with a few other factions and definitely play more Last Stand, which is fantastic when it works.
 
Ok, finally started Cyberpunk 2077 (base edition, no PL).


It's. Ok. I guess. It gives me the option to play as a corpo fem boy which is... I mean hey I can so will.


Takes a while to get going, after 4 hours it feels like the plot is actually starting to pick up with the "heist gone wrong" that you can see coming from a mile away.


I watched Edgerunners a while ago and find myself wishing CP2077 followed the same format of street rat finds family, then found family gets eaten alive by NightCity.


The core plot of CP2077 is slow to get going and I deeply suspect it isn't going to be nearly as interesting as it's going to want to be. Maybe it will scratch the itch, but we'll see.


All told it feels like a big step down in the narrative and storytelling department from Witcher 3 at the moment.
 
Alright, Psychonauts 2 is a wrap.

Fun, goofy game overflowing with personality. Was refreshing to play a pretty straightforward platformer again.

While the visuals and production value was fantastic (that M$ money hard at work) and each of the characters minds had a very unique visual style, the level design was overall good but never reached the same highs of the first game (Milkman Conspiracy and Goggolor levels spring to mind).

Unfortunately the fellow interns didn't play as much of a role in this game, and the cast was a bit overstuffed, so characters didn't get the same opportunity to shine.

Great psychology puns abound however.

I'll probably noodle around for a bit longer doing some cheevo hunting before moving on to something else.
 
Ok, two new games to play:

Cyberpunk: Finally getting around to this one and so far I am very... Whelmed. It's not a bad game, and it is slowly growing on me, it just feels like another game I've played before. It's early in the story, but already I'd say that Deus Ex did the whole transhumanism thing really **** well and I'm struggling to see CP2077 do it better.

CDPR also really kneecapped themselves insisting on the whole "it's first person, cannot have third person cutscenes" thing. The Witcher games had such dynamic character interaction during cutscenes thanks to the cinematic framing it used. CP feels like a huge step backwards with its insistence on staying in FP mode at all times.

Also for all the noise about the visuals they're... Ok? Everything but PT is cranked to max (all post processing turned off cause it was like a vaseline smear all over the screen) and the visuals feel kinda all over the place. The lighting is spectacular at night after rain, or in the interior of some poorly lit buildings, but in the middle of the day the game looks very mid. Lots of low poly objects, lighting is remarkably flat, visuals are really cluttered and hodgepodge looking.

A lot to say about the game and I look forward to playing it through, it's getting it's claws in me for sure, but it's not what I expected after the masterpiece that was Witcher 3.

Guardians of the Galaxy (aka we have the MCU GOTG at home): So I had absolutely no expectations for this whatsoever and it's been a very pleasant surprise. It's just a linear narrative driven shooter. Got your standard weapon upgrades, collectibles, etc.

I appreciate that the titular characters have thus far avoided the flanderizarion from the movies. Star Lord is the butt of some jokes, but he's clearly the leader and begrudgingly respected by the team. Drax is definitely on the more literal side and has taken cues from Bautisa's character from the movies, but he's not a complete idiot and is The Destroyer for a reason. Rocket isn't just "Hahaha he's a raccoon and he's ANGRY ALL THE TIME" get it see how funny it is hahahah. And so on.

Game looks good, plays good, promises a straightforward 15-20 hour adventure, has good pacing between action set pieces and narrative downtime, and most importantly is FUN. Much better than I anticipated.
 
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