Oh hell yeah lemme shill for valheim, 7 days to die, avorion, kenshi, project wingman (in vr with flight controls if you have it), and the forest. I don’t think I have any reputation on this site but I’ll put it on the line to recommend the shit out of those games.
deep rock galactic best game, they’re going to be letting you just… straight up switch between past seasons in the next update, it has such an absurd value for your money and just continously teabags AAA games
Rock and stone! I’ll have to revisit it. My crew burned out on it pretty quick. Likewise with killing floor. Wave shooters just kinda don’t feel amazing.
Whilst we’re shilling for indie games… CrossCode is such a fantastic game with a well thought out and told story with some of the most fun environmental puzzle design I’ve ever seen.
Sadly unless you buy an old copy (on gog?) and use the WADs on gzdoom, doom is now Bethesda’s and they integrated the account system for all the old doom and quake titles
It was Daedalic Entertainment and their older and more indi titles are fine. Since they closed down their dev team after gollum, I don’t think you need to avoid them.
I think that’s not the only game to which they added their own launcher. I don’t know exactly which one, but from what I have read my impression is that it’s most of new games.
At least the launcher of their games actually has a practical use with modding (being able to quickly create sets of active mods that you can switch between).
You should definitely check out this video to understand hello games were the good guys fucked over by a bunch of hype and then Sony, the publisher, giving the studio barely any support while pushing the blame on them for everything.
Why CDPR? They just had a single game with a disaster last gen console launch and a kinda rough PC launch, they made up for it in basicly no time and iirc they own Gog the platform without any drm always online crap
But red flag means that: never even consider to buy, or if bought by accident, refund if still can. Or at least in other areas of life it has such a meaning.
you don’t need red flags to not pre-order. you should never ever pre-order, period. wait for reviews. then wait for about a month to see if they added in-game transactions in that period so they could get away with it like the c***s always do now. then but it if it looks like it’s good and there’s no in-game transactions sneakily added.
I think you answered your own question in the first part, and for the rest, I was mostly interested in the immersion in the game via roleplaying, like NPC’s having their own routines, living, breathing world, etc. A.K.A. the stuff they lied about that still has not made it into the game.
Only things I can remember for Psyonix was they dropped OS support for Mac and Linux, pulled the game from steam, and required an epic account to continue playing. Luckily refunds were being honored when it happened.
They also removed trading for epic’s stupid rocket racing mode that died within a month, made dropshot and snow rotate with each season causing people to throw because who cares about a seasonal mode, servers getting worse every day, doing nothing to stop the smurfing and boosting problems, GC level bots still in ranked (although not as much), invisible players, cheaters able to fuck with the servers and cause disconnects/lag, and just general toxicity from the player base that they won’t address.
It feels like they should have replaced that one with “has epic bought the game or developers”
Like, with rocket league for example, almost every negative thing they mentioned on the list that applies only happened to the game after Psyonix was bought by epic.
I agree, why Hello Games. They are a studio that has gone to great lengths to make the game better and haven’t charged a single penny more. Sean Murray has learnt to not overhype things. I’m looking forward to Light No Fire and having seen what they are capable of following all the NMS updates I have confidence they can succeed.
Hello Games sold a game that was not what was promised. It is not common to have a game be released in the state that NMS was released in get the support that NMS received. Definite red flag. I would stop, and really think hard before purchasing another game from them. Not that I wouldn’t buy one, but I would use some brain function before doing so.
Must be open source? Would be nice, but you are excluding 99.9% of games. Which is fine as a stance, but you don’t need the list then, your stance is just “I don’t play games*”.
Must be self hostable? How would that work with MMOs? Releasing the server software would spoil everything, and discovery of how new mechanics and content works is part of the fun. It would also allow cheaters to learn how the server-sidr anti-cheat works.
Would be nice, but you are excluding 99.9% of games
Take LoL, you can’t physically play the version of the game you want anymore. Buying anything in that game means nothing because it might not exist tomorrow, with open source you can fork it when they change it/remove the thing you bought
How would that work with MMOs?
There already is private servers of closed source MMOs, and there are open source MMOs
Releasing the server software would spoil everything, and discovery of how new mechanics and content works is part of the fun
Not sure I understand it
It would also allow cheaters to learn how the server-sidr anti-cheat works
I don’t know where people suddenly decided cheating is bad. Getting into hacked lobbies and playing scrapped content was so much fun in MW2. Or hacked zombies in W@W
But basically the same as now, anti cheat doesn’t stop cheating. Just ban them when you see them
Again LoL example, they have a kernel anticheat and there’s still cheating. Same with Fortnite.
I agree, I’m just saying it’s an unrealistic stance to have unless you want to play no games at all.
There already is private servers of closed source MMOs
Yes, most done by reimplementing the protocol. They are separate projects that network with the same client project.
Not sure I understand it
Many MMOs have secrets that are undiscovered for years. Many communities spend lots of effort testing mechanics trying to discover how something works, or working together trying to solve a new quest, or piece of content nobody figured out yet. They create wikis trying to catalogue what the player base figured out about the game. When you put it out in the open, all of that is gone, the game is “pre-solved”.
I don’t know where people suddenly decided cheating is bad.
Millennia ago, I assume, when competitive sports became a thing.
Getting into hacked lobbies and playing scrapped content was so much fun in MW2. Or hacked zombies in W@W
Sure. Never played that but this sounds like mods and has nothing to do with cheating.
anti cheat doesn’t stop cheating.
And door locks don’t stop burglary, but they sure reduce it.
Great list I mostly agree with it for myself. I’d love to have a steam bot tell me when a game in my cart violates this. Or maybe a steamdb bot that tells me when I bought a game that violates this, so I can still refund it in the window.
Skyrim wasn’t objectively good, but it was well-liked and infinitely moddable.
Fallout 4 had some interesting mechanics, but the story was bad, the in-game radio host was awful, and the engine was a decade old at that point. It was also the game where Bethesda introduced paid mods.
Fallout 76 is a tale of its own. It failed at every conceivable point, including promotion, merchandise, and post-release content.
Starfield is a loading screen simulator with 1700 near-identical planet and a bad story, and is overall so insignificant that I almost forgot to mention it.
Most recently, Fallout 4’s newest release broke mod compatibility, the only thing that kept it relevant.
It’s fair to say that Bethesda hasn’t developed an objectively good game since Oblivion, and that was the game with the horse armors. Plus there are all the games that are owned by Bethesda, but not developed by them. Redfall, Deathloop, and what Id did to Mick Gordon.
This is where we are now in 2024.
Check if Game is Safe to Buy Checklist:
*some exceptions still apply
So… We’re down to solitaire and minesweeper.
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I’ve had a blast with Hades, Stardew, Outer Wilds (haven’t finished though), and many others. There are some excellent indies.
Oh hell yeah lemme shill for valheim, 7 days to die, avorion, kenshi, project wingman (in vr with flight controls if you have it), and the forest. I don’t think I have any reputation on this site but I’ll put it on the line to recommend the shit out of those games.
deep rock galactic best game, they’re going to be letting you just… straight up switch between past seasons in the next update, it has such an absurd value for your money and just continously teabags AAA games
Rock and stone! I’ll have to revisit it. My crew burned out on it pretty quick. Likewise with killing floor. Wave shooters just kinda don’t feel amazing.
RIGHT!?!? I was SHOOK when they announced that! Overwatch could take ALL my money if they adopted a similar Pass System.
is mentioning 7dtd there supposed to be a joke?
It’s not for everyone but I’ve gotten hundreds of hours out of it. Probably more than any other game I mentioned.
I will always shill for Cassette Beasts. Best monster collecting game, hands-down.
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Whilst we’re shilling for indie games… CrossCode is such a fantastic game with a well thought out and told story with some of the most fun environmental puzzle design I’ve ever seen.
Don’t those have ads on Windows now?
F U C K
Micro(soft)transactions too, I heard
Not if you firewall it off funnily enough
And Doom. Don’t forget Doom
Sadly unless you buy an old copy (on gog?) and use the WADs on gzdoom, doom is now Bethesda’s and they integrated the account system for all the old doom and quake titles
It was Daedalic Entertainment and their older and more indi titles are fine. Since they closed down their dev team after gollum, I don’t think you need to avoid them.
All of their point and click adventures are great. Unfortunate things went downhill after Poki left the company.
Sounds about right. You should add Paradox Interactive as they added a launcher to Across the Obelisk.
I think that’s not the only game to which they added their own launcher. I don’t know exactly which one, but from what I have read my impression is that it’s most of new games.
At least the launcher of their games actually has a practical use with modding (being able to quickly create sets of active mods that you can switch between).
You should definitely check out this video to understand hello games were the good guys fucked over by a bunch of hype and then Sony, the publisher, giving the studio barely any support while pushing the blame on them for everything.
https://youtu.be/O5BJVO3PDeQ?si=S5grsjEigZVumO4a
Why CDPR? They just had a single game with a disaster last gen console launch and a kinda rough PC launch, they made up for it in basicly no time and iirc they own Gog the platform without any drm always online crap
it was only in “red flags”?
maybe more of a “never pre-order” type comment?
Yeah, I meant it more as a caution than a “DO NOT BUY”
I think you were meant yellow flag, which means be cautious.
But red flag means that: never even consider to buy, or if bought by accident, refund if still can. Or at least in other areas of life it has such a meaning.
you don’t need red flags to not pre-order. you should never ever pre-order, period. wait for reviews. then wait for about a month to see if they added in-game transactions in that period so they could get away with it like the c***s always do now. then but it if it looks like it’s good and there’s no in-game transactions sneakily added.
I think you answered your own question in the first part, and for the rest, I was mostly interested in the immersion in the game via roleplaying, like NPC’s having their own routines, living, breathing world, etc. A.K.A. the stuff they lied about that still has not made it into the game.
Why Psyonix? Rocket League is the only game they still work on.
Edit: Psyonix isn’t even a publisher
Only things I can remember for Psyonix was they dropped OS support for Mac and Linux, pulled the game from steam, and required an epic account to continue playing. Luckily refunds were being honored when it happened.
They also removed trading for epic’s stupid rocket racing mode that died within a month, made dropshot and snow rotate with each season causing people to throw because who cares about a seasonal mode, servers getting worse every day, doing nothing to stop the smurfing and boosting problems, GC level bots still in ranked (although not as much), invisible players, cheaters able to fuck with the servers and cause disconnects/lag, and just general toxicity from the player base that they won’t address.
Bingo. I was a Steam, Linux, and Mac (IIRC) player.
Do you need an Epic account to play if you already have it through Steam?
Yes.
Thanks I haven’t played in a long while and couldn’t remember.
But this happened after the Epic acquisition though, the game had Linux support from day one then Sweany came in.
Rocke League before Epic was great and I wouldn’t consider Psyonix a bad company.
I mean, they allowed that to happen, so…?
It feels like they should have replaced that one with “has epic bought the game or developers”
Like, with rocket league for example, almost every negative thing they mentioned on the list that applies only happened to the game after Psyonix was bought by epic.
maybe I should make one of those meme / concept review accounts on steam and run games through this list.
Feel free to copy, improve, and spread the list.
Why Hello Games?
I agree, why Hello Games. They are a studio that has gone to great lengths to make the game better and haven’t charged a single penny more. Sean Murray has learnt to not overhype things. I’m looking forward to Light No Fire and having seen what they are capable of following all the NMS updates I have confidence they can succeed.
No Man’s Sky wasn’t all it was hyped to be on launch, it’s actually much better now (I’m literally playing it right this second lol)
Hello Games sold a game that was not what was promised. It is not common to have a game be released in the state that NMS was released in get the support that NMS received. Definite red flag. I would stop, and really think hard before purchasing another game from them. Not that I wouldn’t buy one, but I would use some brain function before doing so.
You forgot to include Epic Store, and itch
Also forgot must be open source and self hostable (if multiplayer)
I wouldn’t buy something from the epic store. Though I agree with Itch and direct download.
Direct download is already listed there. No Epic store. Games do not need to be open source. I already included local hosting.
You said for co-op not all multiplayer though
Oh! Good call. Thanks.
Must be open source? Would be nice, but you are excluding 99.9% of games. Which is fine as a stance, but you don’t need the list then, your stance is just “I don’t play games*”.
Must be self hostable? How would that work with MMOs? Releasing the server software would spoil everything, and discovery of how new mechanics and content works is part of the fun. It would also allow cheaters to learn how the server-sidr anti-cheat works.
Take LoL, you can’t physically play the version of the game you want anymore. Buying anything in that game means nothing because it might not exist tomorrow, with open source you can fork it when they change it/remove the thing you bought
There already is private servers of closed source MMOs, and there are open source MMOs
Not sure I understand it
I don’t know where people suddenly decided cheating is bad. Getting into hacked lobbies and playing scrapped content was so much fun in MW2. Or hacked zombies in W@W
But basically the same as now, anti cheat doesn’t stop cheating. Just ban them when you see them
Again LoL example, they have a kernel anticheat and there’s still cheating. Same with Fortnite.
I agree, I’m just saying it’s an unrealistic stance to have unless you want to play no games at all.
Yes, most done by reimplementing the protocol. They are separate projects that network with the same client project.
Many MMOs have secrets that are undiscovered for years. Many communities spend lots of effort testing mechanics trying to discover how something works, or working together trying to solve a new quest, or piece of content nobody figured out yet. They create wikis trying to catalogue what the player base figured out about the game. When you put it out in the open, all of that is gone, the game is “pre-solved”.
Millennia ago, I assume, when competitive sports became a thing.
Sure. Never played that but this sounds like mods and has nothing to do with cheating.
And door locks don’t stop burglary, but they sure reduce it.
Great list I mostly agree with it for myself. I’d love to have a steam bot tell me when a game in my cart violates this. Or maybe a steamdb bot that tells me when I bought a game that violates this, so I can still refund it in the window.
Bethesda Why?
I assume you died in 2011 and this is your ghost trying to catch up with the last decade and a half
I was 5 years old in 2011 :(
Jesus i keep forgetting how old I am
Skyrim wasn’t objectively good, but it was well-liked and infinitely moddable.
Fallout 4 had some interesting mechanics, but the story was bad, the in-game radio host was awful, and the engine was a decade old at that point. It was also the game where Bethesda introduced paid mods.
Fallout 76 is a tale of its own. It failed at every conceivable point, including promotion, merchandise, and post-release content.
Starfield is a loading screen simulator with 1700 near-identical planet and a bad story, and is overall so insignificant that I almost forgot to mention it.
Most recently, Fallout 4’s newest release broke mod compatibility, the only thing that kept it relevant.
It’s fair to say that Bethesda hasn’t developed an objectively good game since Oblivion, and that was the game with the horse armors. Plus there are all the games that are owned by Bethesda, but not developed by them. Redfall, Deathloop, and what Id did to Mick Gordon.
death loop was great what are you even
Omori fits
Being created by omocat is a red flag by itself
Why is that
I don’t know about you but I enjoyed my time in RuneScape. And haven’t paid a cent for it!