So, I've spent over 2 hours on Steam searching for a nice game to play. But it's all junk, as far as I'm fed with Steam recommendations. I liked ksp~~2~~ 1, cities skylines 1, age of empires 2, baldurs gate 3 a lot, I just finished Divinity original sin 2. I like rpgs and management / factory games like workers and resources, satisfactory etc. I'm having a lot of fun with split fiction when I play with a friend, but I need a proper singplayer game. Anything I could get which isn't a total ripoff due to lack of gameplay or it being a bug simulator or dlc purchase mania?

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[–] tal 3 points 8 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

So, I’ve spent over 2 hours on Steam searching for a nice game to play. But it’s all junk, as far as I’m fed with Steam recommendations.

Steam does many things well, but its recommendations system is one thing that, in my experience, really falls flat on its face (which surprises me, because they have enough information to do what I would think would be fantastic recommendations).

For finding games on Steam, I've had the most luck simply sorting by user rating (which is a pretty darn good metric of what I'll like, in my experience), and then using the tags to look for games in a genre. There has been one or two times that it's led me astray, but in general, an Overwhelmingly Positive game is something that I'll get a ton of fun out of, and a low-ranked game will rarely be a lot of fun.

Sometimes I've had luck with looking at "similar games" to a game, which are shown on that game's store page.

But the recommendations queue is just awful, in my experience.

[–] LordWiggle@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

I basically do the same, searching overwhelmingly positive games. But most I haven't tried are poorly looking indie games or weird Asian games. I played several really good indie games, I'm not against that, but what I see generally doesn't catch my interest. And I have over 600 games in Steam alone, so many good ones I already played.

Now it's just a sea of junk, having to find a needle in a haystack. And user reviews aren't a gold standard anymore. I've seen amazing reviews of mediocre games, as young people don't have standards anymore as most games these days are empty of story, full of bugs or both.

The game dev community was outraged by bg3, warning people they shouldn't see bg3 as a new standard. While back in the days when you still bought physical games in a store, it indeed was a standard to sell you a proper product for the price you pay.

These days I illegally download triple A games to check them first, if they are good I'll buy them. I haven't bought a triple A game for a long time. Often 2h of playtime for a refund on steam isn't enough, when you want to see all the storyline videos and conversations. Not enough time to experience the gameplay.

Indie games I often buy immediately, they really put in effort to make something worth playing. Big companies however just put in effort to make it look really good to make a lot of pre-orders, then to abandon it after a few minor bug fixes while gameplay is poorly written and just a few hours. As long as you peek the interest for just over 2h so people aren't eligible for a refund anymore. This is scamming people, I don't understand why they keep getting away with it.

In 2024 almost 19.000 games were released on Steam. I have yet to find a single title from 2024 worth playing.

[–] ampersandrew@lemmy.world 1 points 6 hours ago

In 2024 almost 19.000 games were released on Steam. I have yet to find a single title from 2024 worth playing.

Oh man, there's so much. My top 10 from last year would be:

The Rise of the Golden Idol - puzzle/deduction game, sequel to The Case of the Golden Idol
Diesel Legacy: The Brazen Age - fighting game that gracefully handles 4 players at once and has all the good feels of the Xbox Live Arcade era
Indiana Jones and the Great Circle - lite immersive sim and action game that captures the spirit of the best parts of those movies
Metaphor: ReFantazio - a political metaphor in JRPG form
Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree - a beefy expansion pack to one of the best games ever made
Dread Delusion - a lite RPG with fantastic exploration
Indika - a very interesting cinematic story game with some puzzles
UFO 50 - 50 unique games designed to replicate the 80s
Lorelei and the Laser Eyes - a giant escape room, and the puzzles are HARD
The Thaumaturge - an RPG inspired mostly by Persona and The Witcher, but you almost certainly haven't seen a setting like this in a game before

[–] tal 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago)

In 2024 almost 19.000 games were released on Steam. I have yet to find a single title from 2024 worth playing.

looks at my own Steam library, adds a shelf sorted by Release Date, looks for notable games

Satisfactory was released in 2024. It was in Early Access for some time before that. You mentioned that you liked it.

Ditto for Caves of Qud and Nova Drift, games that I've played quite a bit

2024 release following time in Early Access.

Dominions 6 is a pretty involved fantasy strategy game. I haven't played 6 much, but I've played the series a lot in the past, and each game is a pretty direct expansion of prior games. Not sure if that's up your alley, though. The game turns can get pretty long late-game, as there's a lot going on.

I liked Balatro, a roguelike deckbuilder, quite a bit.