• aim_at_me@lemmy.nzEnglish
      1·
      10 days ago

      Yeah this is it for me. Half Life was such a technical marvel and a step change in story telling through gaming.

  • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
    2·
    12 days ago

    As far as labors of love go, Stardew Valley is probably the most current example. People paid for this thing years ago, but Concerned Ape keeps adding new features anyway. The retro graphics give this thing a timeless quality out of the box, so it already looks “dated” - this hasn’t stopped the robust player community around it. We’ll probably see this game stay relevant for a long time.

  • orbular@lemmy.today
    1·
    10 days ago

    Neither of these are popular enough to be on the scale of LoTR, but in terms of atmosphere and detail:

    Hollow Knight - my absolute favorite thing about it is each NPC has its own voiced language recorded, babbling in the background as you read the dialogue.

    Subnautica (the first one) - shitting myself with each new experience is something I’ll always cherish. Highly recommend just playing without looking into the gameplay or plot. Has elements of exploring, resource gathering, base building, psychological horror (not graphic, just tense scenarios), sneaking.

  • sca@feddit.org
    1·
    7 days ago

    Puzzle Pirates, frankly. Made by people who knew what they were doing, were extremely talented, independent, although eventually tried to hook onto Sega as publisher, almost killed the game and then re-purchased the game from Sega to continue as “re-indie” devs. Still going to this day with a stable player base of a few hundred. The game itself is very clearly hand-crafted and every one of the (few) developers left their mark on it. Feels completed and polished.

    • inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world
      1·
      12 days ago

      A lot of folks are listing their favorite games but this is the one that truly fits.

      • Unusually long development time by a studio known for DnD-simmiliar RPG games getting the next installation for the series that defined the genre.

      • Cast voice actors for several years, ones that are still playing their characters on a variety of platforms.

      • Just chock filled references to DnD lore, cute in-jokes, and faithful updates on old characters.

      Everyone involved clearly loved it!

  • JargonWagon@lemmy.world
    1·
    10 days ago

    A videogame that was made with complete love and devotion to the medium, made with talent and sincerity, and is a pinnacle of everything it stands, something that will stand the test of time…

    And nobody mentioned Stardew Valley? I spent too long looking for it and didn’t find a single mention of it. Absolute mastery of its genre, an incredible amount of dedication spent by the developer listening to the fans, and I can’t imagine it not still holding up 10 years from now, or even 20 years from now.

    Baldur’s Gate 3 is great, I love it, but there were so many performance issues with the game even with top tier hardware, and the game was borderline unplayable for others due to these issues. I have a little bias since my save didn’t sync across devices with the steam cloud and I have to start all over. Love the game, but I just can’t believe Stardew Valley isn’t even mentioned.

    • sunflowercowboy@feddit.orgEnglish
      1·
      10 days ago

      Terraria I feel would be closer as stardew valley is a one man job. Terraria grew as a vision that hasn’t really strayed beyond, but every update instead chisels the stone more. It is a game that took castlevania/mario inspirations and honed it into a perfect conception of 2d sidescrollers but with a liberty. (Akin to stardew being the first real open farming sim)

      Redigit did amazing on the original SMBX fangame. Basically took the concept, and removed constraints. You can see the differences in development ethos as new people came on and really created a diverse game. It is so groundbreaking in their conformity that most can only compare to Minecraft, something essentially extradimensional to terraria.

      Imagine being so baller you get compared to a game that puts you in control of shaping the world around you. When terraria is a game that predominantly shapes you around the world. Eventually even adding lore to these shapes it forms out of you.

      Are you the summoner? The fisher? The knight? The archer? The farmer?

      You will be all at some point in your journey of improvement. You will don every hat and for it you will be able to reflect back on your next life and proceed with new knowledge. The Belmont’s curse is never over, and this is our only solace.

    • Alteon@lemmy.world
      0·
      11 days ago

      XCOM: UFO Defense (1994)

      It’s by far the best version of XCOM. I mean. The graphics are as great, but it has all of the same features as the modern version (not joking), and I think the strategy is by far better. You can also have your own base that you have to defend.

        • Alteon@lemmy.world
          1·
          8 days ago

          Lol. If you haven’t tried I, you really should. It’s like an Enemy Within Demake, with all of the same features and better strategy. You can get an Alien Grenade Launcher that allows you to strategically control the route of the grenade. It allows for absolutely bonkers strategies like blowing a hole in the top of an alien battleship, guiding a grenade in blind to the enemy command structure, and then dropping in afterwards like some sort of Hi-Tech Psionic SWAT Team. Makes the entire enemy team panic. And makes for easy clean up.

          Absolutely loved that game.

          Edit: I think Xenonauts 2 is supposed to be pretty similar.

          • mavu@discuss.tchncs.de
            1·
            7 days ago

            I played it when it came out in the 90s and didn’t like it then, won’t like it now.
            There is a point in time when we understood how to do User interfaces, and a point when we forgot that again. XCOM:Enemy within is smack in the middle of that period.