The Legend of Alan D’ar, it was for me the first co-op rpg I’d ever played. My brother and I couldn’t out our controllers down. Sadly all you ever hear about it IF anything is how much people hated it.
Would chess count?
I mean chess is not not popular by any stretch of the mind, a lot of people around the world are playing it every single day and that won’t go away anytime soon, but I’m always surprised to see so much more excitement going on around a new version of This or That video game that people will play for a little while before switching to a newer version than for chess. Despite its apparent simplicity (and lack of visual effects), chess has remained a challenge for the smartest among us, and will keep on being so no matter how much better computers can be playing it.
In my experience, chess is one of the more demoralizing games to try to get into. My friends are kinda into it and every time I play with them, it’s just 10 mins of slowly losing and every move I make feels pointless. You can learn the rules easily, but learning how to read the game state feels like a difficult and unrewarding process. I used to like chess casually, but playing with people who just have an amateur understanding isn’t fun and has made me less interested in the game.
Chess has taken over a significant portion of my gaming time since getting into it a couple of years ago.
It’s a beautifully deep game, and it’s refreshing to be able to pour time into something with staying power that people of every age play all over the world.
It’s a beautifully deep game, and it’s refreshing to be able to pour time into something with staying power that people of every age play all over the world.
So much this :)
Yeah but it doesn’t have tech trees or fog of war
tech tree:
pawn -> queen
pawn -> rook
pawn -> knight
pawn -> bishop
Someone should inform the devs there is no reason to pick anything but queen and knight.
google en passant
I mean when promoting.
Yeah, ‘google en passant’ is an r/AnarchyChess joke.
Unless you are in on it, in which case damn, you’re stone cold.
In theory, you can always promote to a rook just to show off. I have no idea if it’s considered a bad mannered move.
Ah I see. Thanks for explaining. I wasn’t in on it heh.
But it has kings and queens and knights, armies of pawns and thick towers to defend them during merciless battles. It also has bishops, but I much prefer the French name: les fous aka the crazy ones ;)
Have you tried the demo for Passant?
I’m the furthest away as anyone can be from a pro chess player, but this game really revived my passion for chess. Somehow all people want to play is blitz or tournaments. There’s little interest in variations. It’s like amongst the chess scene having fun became taboo. It’s a serious game for serious people who only want to defeat others. And it is so tiring. Oh look, another London system game, how titillating.
It’s a board game, I know why people enjoy competition and all, but I find competition drains games from anything interesting to me. I just want it to be fun and intellectually stimulating. Bring variations and quirky rules back, make it interesting to lose. Level the playing field so we can all participate and have fun instead of everyone just trying to play optimally like little machines.
Have you seen The Rookery? It’s a well-made chess roguelite that has become my comfort game lately. It was made by the same devs who made https://www.drawbackchess.com/.
Also thanks for the heads up. I’m off to play the demo right away.
Simon the Sorcerer
It always seems to be overshadowed by Monkey Island. Personally I think it’s actually better in many ways.
I looooved Simon The Sorcerer so much as a child! One of my favourite point and click adventures.
star trek online and champions online. they were pretty reasonable for free to play mmo’s and the costuming was amazing.
For video games, Full Spectrum Warrior.
It’s got a unique third person-ish view where the player swaps between different fire teams or special units, and orders them. It looks like a third person shooter but is just a real time ground level tactical game. It’s demanding but fun. It’s the kind of game that Brothers In Arms, old school Ghost Recon, or Doorkickers players would love. I don’t know why nobody really remembers it or why somebody hasn’t made a spiritual successor.
Like, from 20 years ago? I mean I loved that game too, and playing it in Iraq made it all kinda silly surreal in a fun sort of way. OK, yes, I second this!
Quake Champions is pretty great, surprised it’s not at least a little bigger
I’m content with OpenArena, so Quake 3 with open source graphics so you can install and play it anywhere. What does champions do that I’m missing out on?
I’m not familiar with Open Arena so hard for my to say a lot, but QC def feels way more modern than the other Quake’s in a way I appreciate a lot.
The graphics, audio, cosmetics, etc are all awesome. SyncError is also an excellent map designer and I love the maps he releases
For video games, Ostranauts. It’s the perfect space survival sim IMO. You wake up on an industrial salvage station and get a ship. Then you fly to derelict ships and scrap them for money and parts. Build up your own ship and travel farther and farther out. It’s jank as fuck to learn but once you get it down it’s the type of game where you put on music then just go for hours and hours. It’s early access and a lot is changing but the core gameplay loop is so addicting already.
For tabletop games, Infinity. It’s the best miniatures skirmish game I’ve ever played. The rules are deep but tight. The number of minis you put on the table is just right to me. List building is the best of any game I ever played. The rules are free. The app is free. The miniatures are the best out of any wargame I’ve ever played. It’s just a shame that people are so locked into Games Workshop that they don’t see other games as an option. Like I had a couple friends get hardcore into it but never more than that. And at the height of it’s popularity at our store we had one of the best players on the East coast play in a tournament. That was a sight to behold. Like I’m not a tourney player at all for any game. Watching the number 1 east coast player do his thing was the most inspired I ever was to become a tournament player.
Ostranauts still needs time to cook but there’s nothing quite like getting your first torch lit, nearly starving during the trip to Venus and then spending days stuck in a crash couch while your earther pilot supervises the burn that nearly kills you. Definitely room to grow.
I agree that it still needs a cooking, but what’s there is already so good. Salmon is great raw or cooked.
I could name so many tabletop RPGs for this. Unfortunately, since Hasbro has dominated the space like a generational pile of elephant dung for over 2 decades now, and TSR actually did manage to make a few smart marketing decisions before Dragon Dice and the bankruptcy, I guess I can’t be too shocked.
So I guess I’ll go with a board game. Tsuro - The Game of the Path. It’s super-simple to learn and play, can be interesting for kids and adults alike, and it’s just a really solid, fun, game. There’s even an iOS version. I don’t understand why it’s a niche game instead of being front-and-center ahead of Monopoly or Clue(do). It’s not even prohibitively expensive, honestly - the wholly valid argument against Carcassonne and other niche games. There’s no good reason I can think of why Ticket to Ride is more popular than Tsuro.
Wow! I still have my Dragon Dice in a box somewhere. A few of my friends had it and we played about 4 games before we got bored. Still something nostalgic about it for me though.
I also agree about Tsuro. Great fun!
I could name so many tabletop RPGs for this.
GURPS has been my obsession for a few years now. It’s both the simplest, in terms of base mechanics, and most complex, in terms of optional rules, TTRPG I can imagine. It can handle literally any setting, play style, or crunch level with ease.
I love GURPS, but have since moved to the Cypher System, which is mechanically beautiful and rewarding like nothing I’ve ever seen.
Yeah I looked at Cypher when I was looking for a new home after abandoning D&D5e, but the crunch of GURPS appealed to me. I like having optional play tested mechanics for everything, so my power gamers get consistent rulings but my casual players don’t feel too much pressure.
Yes, but are you surprised at SJG not being the top RPG? The media push after GURPS Cyberpunk has faded fully. If they’d stuck with Fallout, maybe it could change.
The top RPG? That’s a bit ambitious. But I’m surprised it isn’t more popular.
Me and my girlfriend are big fans of Doomsday Paradise, a rouge like dating sim
Cattle Country, a completely unique stardew-esque game set in the wild west. It feels way more in depth and polished than Stardew, and you can be attacked by random wildlife and even outlaws lol
Meinkraft
Kunitsu-Gami. I tried the demo and spent 8 hours on it trying to get everything perfect, which made me realize I should just buy it. It was a total delight. I didn’t expect it, never even heard of it honestly, but I can’t stop recommending it.
Battletech should be the king of tabletop wargames. But no, everyone just wants to play 40k because of the sunk cost.
I love Battletech, but I understand why it isn’t for everyone. The crunch of of detailing armor hits and internal effects, and keeping track of heat sinks is all the kind of thing that appeals to a specific kind of numbers nerd.
Yes Alpha Strike exists, but it’s relatively new and I think it exists as this weird thing that by stripping out the details takes away the appeal for the loyal crunchy brained people.
Further, the miniatures are really neat, but 28mm (or 32mm, whatever is happening with 40k scale creep these days) scale really allows people to paint and customize characters which is appealing to more people than relatively less characterful mech sculpts.
I got into the Battletech universe from the Mechwarrior PC games. Which…long story short, MW2: 31st Century Combat and MW4: Vengeance were really bad at indicating there was a whole franchise behind them. I learned it was a whole big thing from guys I met on MW4’s online multiplayer. Who here remembers MSN Gaming Zone?
I tried to pick up the BATTLETECH game on Steam not too long ago, on the understanding that it’s a computerized version of the tabletop game’s rules…and bounced right off it. First of all, it has like, a Campaign mode and a Career mode? How are those different? Then both launching the game and starting a career play an intro cinematic longer than the Lord of the Rings franchise. I mean fuck, Tex of the Black Pants Legion doesn’t talk this much about mechs. The story is, to me, the least interesting thing Battletech can do: You’re some nothing fuck mercenary working for some nothing fuck duchess on some nothing fuck periphery planet.
Three and a half months after the Steam return window passes, I finally get into the game to play the tutorial mission. It’s popping up text on the screen to teach how to control the game, meanwhile there’s a voiceover saying different things trying to tell the story of the Nothing Fuck Roughriders and their quest to avenge Lady Nothing Fuck of Nothing Fuckersville. It hit me with both simultaneously.
Software I hate does not stay installed on my computer.
Its a great game though :(
It rather thoroughly wore out its welcome with me.
Steam says I played it 28 minutes. Most of that was sitting through intro cinematic. I didn’t finish the tutorial mission, I’d be surprised if 5 minutes out of that 28 was actually spent in-engine playing the actual game.
Forgot to mention, the amount of real estate on the title screen trying to get me to buy more shit…that scraped my taint more than a little. I’ve blacklisted entire studios for less.
Half of it is the sunk cost. Half of it is the Clans. Plus, MW2 and forward have had multiplayer Mercs modes with lance-vs-lance combats. Why would most people want to play on tabletop when that exists?
Admittedly, there is something satisfying about a Jenner with every jet in the world and a single PPC making a jump, cooling down in midair, and landing directly on top of an enemy and doing major structural damage before leaping away.
Because it’s Chess 2.0! Yeah MW is fun but tabletop just does it for me.
Battletech is insane but the 40k universe is a much bigger hook because it’s somehow even more insane. Also I grew up with it, didn’t really look much into the battletech universe until the other year.
Yes I understand, im talking from a mechanical perspective
An indie 3D platformer game from a couple years ago called Hell Pie. You’re a low-level demon who gets an angel chained to him, and you can use it to do things like spin him to launch yourself and swing on stuff. If you like classic 3D platformers and toilet humor, it’s really very good, and pretty novel.
I just looked at pictures and I fell in love with that artstyle I’ll add that too my list thx
Nice! Don’t expect anything super polished, like an old Ratchet and Clank, or anything, I think it was a small Unity or Unreal project, but I really enjoyed it.
I have just no capacity to judge what’s popular anymore, not sure i ever did.
There isn’t really a natural ‘popular,’ and almost never has been. It’s mostly just what’s marketed.
