Any game that single handedly managed to revive your weakened interest in gaming?

[Terra]

All it takes is "that one game" and maybe some time taking a break from gaming. There are always games out that can break you out of a gaming slump. Albeit, when you do find one of them and finish it, you'll possibly be back in the same place you started where the next game never quite measures up. Different games have done it for me at different points in life; and I think which titles can rekindle your interest in gaming are really down to the individual. Past a certain point, you can't keep chasing the dragon, because games now can't spark that same sense of wonder from youth. There's the odd game out there that'll do it, but you can't force them to pop into existence nor guarantee a steady supply of them. Hell, I miss the middle-tier developers from the PS1-PS2 days where they took risks and we had a host of varied, creative titles lining store shelves, but those days likely aren't coming back.

I'd say the following points have helped me out of spells of gaming apathy (and are also proactive measures to help prevent a fresh gaming slump):
- Aggressively cut out AAA cookie cutter games from your gaming diet - everything Ubisoft being an easy example to point to. Climbing towers to synchronise viewpoints, herb gathering chores married to an obnoxious crafting system - it's all shite, cut it all out. You don't need to be a glorified vacuum cleaner sucking up all those crafting components in each and every filing cabinet/chest in the latest TES/Fallout title, you've been there, you've done that already; it's just a rote, repetition of something you've done before. When you read the words "open world" in the blurb of the next big, upcoming game, cross it off your list. If I played as many AAA open world games as publishers want me to consume, I'd never be able to leave my house.

-To this day, I've kept a few ps1/ps2 jrpgs that are supposedly great in my library, unplayed, and I'm simply saving them for a rainy day. If my gaming situation ever becomes truly dire, I've got a dozen or so unplayed good-great rpgs that I missed in my youth waiting to savour. To a lesser extent, thanks to GOG, I've recently been chipping away at Sierra's complete back catalog of adventure games that I missed out on, while also supplementing with any interviews I can find on youtube, it's really been scratching at my old LucasArts Point and Click nostalgia itch.

-For years I played no multiplayer games, then a few years back I started leaning back into again. It was a somewhat transformative experience. I was getting home from work and firing up a game and... I was having fun straight away. I wasn't spending the 3 hours of game time I had that night slogging through a pain in the ass overly long dungeon, I wasn't dealing with a poorly paced section of a singleplayer game, I wasn't parsing through paragraphs of purple prose adorning my screen, no, I was just having fun with the game. There can be a certain immediacy to multiplayer titles that I found I been remiss in neglecting for so many years.

-Be wary of overindulging in classics/personal favourites. Due to a lack of free time & significant backlog, I don't really have time to justify repeat playthroughs of games, unless they are short. However, that's not the only reason I choose not to play say BG2 over and over again on a loop. Give it a few years between replays and you'll probably appreciate it a lot more.

-My overall advice would be to branch out beyond whatever your mainstay is, if it's RPGs, lay off them for a while and try other genres. Hell, the most recent game to reinvigorate me would be Sengoku Rance. I hadn't played any h-games in years so going into the experience I was expecting something a little different than what I got; namely that the game was awesome and truly exceeded my expectations at every level. Hell, back in the PS1 days, I scoffed at the idea of a farming game being fun, then I happened to get a chance to try Harvest Moon Back to Nature and I was like a man possessed optimising my fields and daily schedules, years later when Stardew Valley rolled around I got to do it all over again (largely because the original dev inexplicably never properly iterated on their best title).

-I'd say, trying to find genuinely funny games can help - Rance is funny, Tales from the Borderlands kept me entertained throughout, even on replays. Slim pickings finding genuinely funny titles though but they can certainly help lift your mood and open the way back to gaming.

Eventually the right game will find you and will strike a chord and get you back into gaming - you can't force it though, in my experience. If you're tired of gaming, focus on doing something else for a while till the urge to game returns. Hell, just browsing Codex daily and I can guarantee that eventually you'll stumble upon a mention of some random game that'll end up piquing your interest.

 

[Ash]

I never lost interest in games or had it weakened, but in the last few years i got increasingly disinterested in big budget "AAA" industry. However Prey, Dishonored 2/2.5 and Deus Ex: MD showed me that they can still make good games (gameplay-wise at least). Prey grew to be my favorite immersive sim and i've played the demo alone for hours trying to find all possible options and paths in it..

looool. Each of those games have declined gameplay. Better than most modern shit for sure, but relative to older games they're bland. Prey!? The game that falls apart half way through? Dishonored? The piss easy game with boring as hell exploration? Deus Ex popamole divided with its endless looting of copy-paste stores? Low standards man. Well, at least you're not some popamole fag that thinks Skyrim, GTAV and TLoU are the best shit ever.

 

[sser]

Battle Brothers right from the alpha -- it's the reason I immediately reached out to them to work on the game.

Left 4 Dead for co-op shooters, like BB, I was immediately sold from the little 1-level demo they released. The Red Orchestra series might also have been a bit of a revelation for me as I missed a chunk of the huge-multiplayer Tribes games and didn't really care for BF1942; but RO hit that sweet spot of arcadey+realism+teamwork. I just really enjoyed that series. My interest waned with the second Vietnam game, but it helped introduce me to that side of the FPS genre (Natural Selection 2 perhaps being my favorite if only it would run better).

Civ IV revitalized my interest in the civ series so strongly I gulped down CivCol, Civ5 and Civ6 without even needing to unlock my jaw.


All that said, I know the feeling. Since BB, I've not really had any sort of gaming spark for probably 3-4+ years now.

Have you tried Hell Let Loose? It's in that same spot as RO I think.

Being eyeing it and the 'Scriptum one. I think for a change of pace what I'll actually end up getting is the American Civil War one whenever it goes back on sale.

 

[Cael]

If you went through a period of disinterest/apathy for games and then one particular title managed to bring back your enjoyment in the hobby, then please share which game did it for you cause I feel dead inside whenever I play stuff these days.



I still didn't reach the excitement levels of a rotting corpse, but fuck me if I don't feel a thing anymore for most of the stuff I pick to play now. It's like the magic is gone.

Dwarf Fortress really brought it back for me. I always liked the Civ-type strategy games but Civ 4 was getting a bit old and there were no other Civ-type games since. Then I started messing with DF.

 

[Bad Sector]

Prey!? The game that falls apart half way through? Dishonored? The piss easy game with boring as hell exploration? Deus Ex popamole divided with its endless looting of copy-paste stores?

They're easy however what i like about them is how they handle multiple approaches (especially Prey) and their exploration (i didn't find Dishonored's exploration boring myself). I'm not sure what you refer to with 'endless looting of copy-paste stores' in DXMD as i do not remember having that impression (and i played the game relatively recently)... the only aspect of the game's world i can think of that was a bit repeated was the storage areas but that was such a minor part of the world that i wouldn't even think about it if you didn't mention that something was repeated. Is that what you had in mind or something i've forgotten?

 

[aweigh]

Elminage: Gothic in 2016

Romancing SaGa 2 in 2020

 

[Volrath]

Bloodlines, New Vegas and Dark Souls.

 

[Grokalibre]

Jet Set Willy 2

 

[Tacgnol]

Fallout Nevada transported me to an alternate universe where we got another proper Fallout game.

I seem to have way more enthusiasm and excitement for fan projects and mods these days then I do actual new games.

 

[Vyadhis]

Its a cliche choice nowadays but From Software games. With so many of my favorite series dead, ruined or both (Silent Hill) I still get really excited for news of any upcoming title by these devs. They are the only dev team that's yet to shit the bed for me or sell out and I say this as someone who is highly critical of Dark Souls 3's direction.

I still get decently excited for new Ace Combat titles too but I've resigned myself to the fact that nothing will come close to the ps2 trilogy in terms of mission length and replayability. I'm long done with AC7, all achievements..no interest in playing yet I still fire up AC4,5 and Zero every year. Sure enough when AC8 is announced I'll be glued to any announcement until release where I'll binge the game and lose all interest. Maybe a faithful remake of 3 would be good?

 

[Galdred]

For SP, Kenshi. It sat on my HD for years, before I decided to fire it up, and it was amazing. It's the only "community/Settlement building" RPG, and it worked where none other manage to pull it out.
For MP, Dominions 5. My first MP games brought me back the the days I played persistent massively multiplayer browser games (Hyperiums and Fondation), in which you always felt a mix of anticipation and anxiousness as you loaded up your "turn".
Shadow Empire also manage to rekindle my love for 4X. It felt like we were back to the time where complexity was not an issue for games.

 

[Curratum]

I have given up on my flaccid interest in gaming and resigned to my "pensioner games".

I'm now almost exclusively playing Euro Truck Sim 2, American Truck Sim and theHunter Call of the Wild.

The sooner you give up on trying to find games that excite you like games from 20 years ago did, the better. It's not the games, it's you.

 

[Falksi]

Similarly to Sreggin Etah I , I've been indulging in games from the 8-16 bit era to re-stoke the fires.

But that said, a few quality games which have been released more recently which had them fires burning too include:

• Shadowrun Returns + Dragonfall
• Hard West
• The Technomancer
• Divinity 2:TDKS
• Tales of Berseria & Zesteria
• Streets of Rage Remake
• The Sexy Brutale
• The Banner Saga

They've definitely picked me up when things were looking shite.

 

[Theodora]

Subnautica really surprised me. I didn't think I could still experience that kind of wonder one has as a child, but Subnautica managed it, and got me looking for more of that feeling.

 

[El Presidente]

So I decided to go for something more unusual and random to see if a miracle could happen. Installed Broken Sword - Shadow of the Templars, from 1996.

And... it worked! :D Holy shit it got me extremely hooked, finally! It feels really good to feel this again.

Most of you were right, the answer is to go back to some classic that's widely considered to be great and that you still didn't play for some reason. Those really can spark the flame again.

To jump from modern shit to modern shit is to beg for disappointment unless you're very lucky to stumble upon a great one that can reignite the flame. Most of them can't.

 

[Jrpgfan]

AoD was the game that made me reignite my appreciation for RPGs. I had pretty much abandoned the genre by that point.

Then we had Underrail and BB that same year and that's why I came to this place and am stuck in here to this day.

I'm not sure that was a good thing after all.

 

[Curratum]

AoD was the game that made me reignite my appreciation for RPGs. I had pretty much abandoned the genre by that point.

Then we had Underrail and BB that same year and that's why I came to this place and am stuck in here to this day.

I'm not sure that was a good thing after all.

Saved by western rpgs and narrowly avoiding jrpg-induced suicide, I see!

 

[Talby]

Realms of Arkania HD.

 

[[UCHIHA]XxDarkSasuke420xX]

I'm now almost exclusively playing Euro Truck Sim 2, American Truck Sim and theHunter Call of the Wild.

 

[El Presidente]

Well I definitely can't make fun of him on that one

ETS2 is fantastic, though I barely treat it as a game, more like a chill de-stress sim to play while listening to some good music or some video/podcast/whatever. It's on a league of its own when it comes to relaxing games.

 

[asfasdf]

Joke is on you, my interest in games never weakened.

 

[HeatEXTEND]

AoD and Underrail.

 

[Konjad]

Just wait for Cyberpunk!

 

[Gamezor]

All it takes is "that one game" and maybe some time taking a break from gaming. There are always games out that can break you out of a gaming slump. Albeit, when you do find one of them and finish it, you'll possibly be back in the same place you started where the next game never quite measures up. Different games have done it for me at different points in life; and I think which titles can rekindle your interest in gaming are really down to the individual. Past a certain point, you can't keep chasing the dragon, because games now can't spark that same sense of wonder from youth. There's the odd game out there that'll do it, but you can't force them to pop into existence nor guarantee a steady supply of them. Hell, I miss the middle-tier developers from the PS1-PS2 days where they took risks and we had a host of varied, creative titles lining store shelves, but those days likely aren't coming back.

I'd say the following points have helped me out of spells of gaming apathy (and are also proactive measures to help prevent a fresh gaming slump):
- Aggressively cut out AAA cookie cutter games from your gaming diet - everything Ubisoft being an easy example to point to. Climbing towers to synchronise viewpoints, herb gathering chores married to an obnoxious crafting system - it's all shite, cut it all out. You don't need to be a glorified vacuum cleaner sucking up all those crafting components in each and every filing cabinet/chest in the latest TES/Fallout title, you've been there, you've done that already; it's just a rote, repetition of something you've done before. When you read the words "open world" in the blurb of the next big, upcoming game, cross it off your list. If I played as many AAA open world games as publishers want me to consume, I'd never be able to leave my house.

-To this day, I've kept a few ps1/ps2 jrpgs that are supposedly great in my library, unplayed, and I'm simply saving them for a rainy day. If my gaming situation ever becomes truly dire, I've got a dozen or so unplayed good-great rpgs that I missed in my youth waiting to savour. To a lesser extent, thanks to GOG, I've recently been chipping away at Sierra's complete back catalog of adventure games that I missed out on, while also supplementing with any interviews I can find on youtube, it's really been scratching at my old LucasArts Point and Click nostalgia itch.

-For years I played no multiplayer games, then a few years back I started leaning back into again. It was a somewhat transformative experience. I was getting home from work and firing up a game and... I was having fun straight away. I wasn't spending the 3 hours of game time I had that night slogging through a pain in the ass overly long dungeon, I wasn't dealing with a poorly paced section of a singleplayer game, I wasn't parsing through paragraphs of purple prose adorning my screen, no, I was just having fun with the game. There can be a certain immediacy to multiplayer titles that I found I been remiss in neglecting for so many years.

-Be wary of overindulging in classics/personal favourites. Due to a lack of free time & significant backlog, I don't really have time to justify repeat playthroughs of games, unless they are short. However, that's not the only reason I choose not to play say BG2 over and over again on a loop. Give it a few years between replays and you'll probably appreciate it a lot more.

-My overall advice would be to branch out beyond whatever your mainstay is, if it's RPGs, lay off them for a while and try other genres. Hell, the most recent game to reinvigorate me would be Sengoku Rance. I hadn't played any h-games in years so going into the experience I was expecting something a little different than what I got; namely that the game was awesome and truly exceeded my expectations at every level. Hell, back in the PS1 days, I scoffed at the idea of a farming game being fun, then I happened to get a chance to try Harvest Moon Back to Nature and I was like a man possessed optimising my fields and daily schedules, years later when Stardew Valley rolled around I got to do it all over again (largely because the original dev inexplicably never properly iterated on their best title).

-I'd say, trying to find genuinely funny games can help - Rance is funny, Tales from the Borderlands kept me entertained throughout, even on replays. Slim pickings finding genuinely funny titles though but they can certainly help lift your mood and open the way back to gaming.

Eventually the right game will find you and will strike a chord and get you back into gaming - you can't force it though, in my experience. If you're tired of gaming, focus on doing something else for a while till the urge to game returns. Hell, just browsing Codex daily and I can guarantee that eventually you'll stumble upon a mention of some random game that'll end up piquing your interest.

Got any recommendations for multiplayer games?

 

[RobotSquirrel]

NuCom for me as well but they ruined it with Xcom 2 and the fact that so many incompetent fools keep copying it failing to get that the reason why Xcom 2012 worked as well as it did was because it marriages successfully the tactical with the strategic.
You know its like if they wanted to do xcom styled games they should have started incorporating more Jagged Alliance 2 style improvements to the combat and inventory as to me that was always a natural fit where I saw it going but no one ever came to that conclusion and Firaxis somehow managed to go backwards though I mean look at how they've managed Civ lately similar simplifications are going on there too.

But that game was the last game to ever give me a sense of progression that modern games are lacking and it gave me a sense of investment of my time with the game. But mechanically god damn does it need work 98% chance to hit and miss shouldn't be happening but its a 1-10 dice roll and the Percentages mean basically nothing this is why late-game strats are use abilities with assured damage. Redundant design kills the game if your dice rolls can be swapped out for abilities that give damage regardless all you've done is just created gated gameplay. As then the player will just grind out the lower skilled characters until they can be as useful. The snowball point is Plasma Weapons and the Jetpacks at that point the player is so OP that most of the mechanics no longer apply such as Cover and flanking it just becomes a press a button to kill game at that point, its strange that much like Deus Ex the game becomes less strategic as you progress. This is where OG Xcom has it beat I think because its much much more consistent in its mechanics where the end game still plays very similar to the early game and you're still very much on your toes.

Sadly NuCom was a long time ago and so I'm back to being jadded about things again.

Also the air game is NuCom is trash. OGs was better.

 

[TemplarGR]

NuCom for me as well but they ruined it with Xcom 2

Yup. I often see even "strategy niche" sites like Strategygames, and most review sites in fact, claiming that Xcom 2 was better than Xcom 1, and i was like WTF? XCOM 2 is trash, sadly, the only really improved thing are the graphics. The first NuCom was kinda nice, not a masterpiece but pretty damn fine as far as console-port strategy games are concerned.

Also the air game is NuCom is trash. OGs was better.

Yeah. The best air game was in Xcom Apocalypse. It was awesome, you could even fight huge godzilla types of aliens and send your manufactured air vehicles to destroy/raid enemy organization buildings. So much fun.