games

Fallout New Vegas (pure vanilla with not a single mod aka the console editions and the broken PC ports).

It's sometimes hard to recommend FNV to other people due to the fact that the only way to really enjoy the game is using the Viva New Vegas modlist.

I'm never reinstalling Windows so I have to pray that MO2 gets ported to Linux sooner rather than later because I personally despise hacking with WINE prefixes/organizing esps/ESM files myself. Also the fact that

• Mods are distributed through a proprietary network ~~shithole~~ service called Nexus Mods
• I own a copy of the game on Steam unfortunately and I know how much I despise interfacing with that program.
• There's so many mods to install goddamn

There's an old rogue-lite called Castle of the Winds from ages ago in all its 16 bit glory

Short answer: Elex, what if Bethesda was both far more ambitious and also far less talented.

Long answer: I’ve been playing Quasimorph recently. It’s a bit like a turn based extraction shooter where you control a single mercenary clone (IN SPACE) and do missions for different factions in a sort of mount and blade style of reputation balancing (or not balancing). Your clone levels up, you can select from different builds, you choose your load outs and missions. If you die you lose the gear and leveled clone you sent (or the fresh meat who valiantly died in recon by fire).

The graphics are somewhat charming in that Gameboy Aliens game industrial sort of way. The music is actually strong, but that’s incredibly subjective.

It’s niche, it’s hard, it’s unfinished, and updates are slow but steady.

I can’t imagine the target audience being large, and I don’t expect the mechanics to change or expand overly much. For what it is, it’s fine unless you are the rare sort who wanted to play a combination of the original XCOM, Caves of Qud, and Escape from Tarkov. So I enjoy it very much, but I don’t recommend it to people unless they’re willing to potentially waste their time on something weird.