• inb4_FoundTheVegan@lemmy.world
      1202·
      2 months 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!

      • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
        191·
        2 months ago

        Unusually long development time

        No joke, I installed the open-beta/pre-release years ago, played for a bit, and uninstalled it. When the actual release dropped, I had the most intense déjà vu about it all because I forgot that had even happened. I had to go back to my Steam library to puzzle it all back together.

      • Soup@lemmy.world
        111·
        2 months ago

        The real question is what is Larian’s equivalent to Peter Jackson’s “Meet the Feebles”?

      • Siethron@lemmy.world
        4·
        2 months ago

        Part of the reason development took so long was due to them using early release for the right reasons. They listened to the player base and changed the game based on feedback from the fans

  • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
    1081·
    2 months 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.

    • aim_at_me@lemmy.nzEnglish
      4·
      2 months ago

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

    • xttweaponttx@sh.itjust.works
      4·
      1 month ago

      Outer wilds is just ridiculously good. Somehow the DLC matches the OG story’s level of insanely good. Best game I’ve ever played, or probably ever will.

  • DaddleDew@lemmy.world
    355·
    2 months ago
    • Half-Life/Half-Life 2
    • The original Fallout
    • The original Doom
    • Brutal Doom (the campaign)
    • Star Control 2 (The Ur’Quan Masters fan-made modernized version)
    • The Neverhood
    • Subnautica (not Below Zer0)
    • Duke Nukem 3D
    • Total Annihilation
    • Megaman (the first one)
    • Megaman X (the first one)
    • Team Fortress 2
    • Portal 2

    This is by no means an all inclusive list. These are just games that I personally played that fit the criteria.

    • orbular@lemmy.today
      2·
      2 months ago

      If only I could play subnautica for the first time again. Such an incredible atmosphere. Another one of my favorites is Hollow Knight.

    • pyre@lemmy.world
      22·
      2 months ago

      man i tried so many times and couldn’t get into outer wilds. it’s so fucking boring to get started that when things start getting even remotely interesting I’m already checked out. the game’s all “here’s a bunch of threads, which one do you want to pull” and I’m like “I don’t care”

      • shneancy@lemmy.world
        2·
        2 months ago

        Outer Wilds is best started on rainy evenings around late summer, it took me a couple of tries to get into it as well, i bounced off at least 2 times. but the 3rd time it grabbed me and now it’s my all time favourite game.

        basically, don’t stress it :) it’s a brilliant game and honestly after you finish it one day you’ll long for the time when it was still ahead of you as you can only play it once for the first time

        • billhead@sh.itjust.works
          2·
          1 month ago

          I love Outer Wilds. I’ll never forgot the moment of resignation when the all too familiar music starts playing only to realize, Oh no, it’s quite different this time.

          The DLC though… not for me. It’s like a completely different game, different genre, with the only thing in common being the looping. I started feeling like such a chore that I just installed some mods to blaze through it and at least see the conclusion.

  • JargonWagon@lemmy.world
    302·
    2 months 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.

    • thespcicifcocean@lemmy.world
      1·
      2 months ago

      I kinda feel like Stardew is incomplete, I want to know more about the world, the lore. I also wish that I could have more time in a day to complete what I set out to do.

      • JargonWagon@lemmy.world
        5·
        2 months ago

        Not every game needs an endless depth of lore that only those without jobs or have other things that fill up their days can dive into. Stardew Valley is a farming simulator, it doesn’t need hundreds or thousands of years of history for you to study up on, and thank the dieties it doesn’t. It meets the prompt provided in the original post.

        Not bagging on people who enjoy deep lore in games, you do you, but I only get about 1-3 hours a week to play so that shit is not for me anymore. I need a game I can very easily pick up, get some shit done, and be okay putting it back down again before not too much time is up.

        • sandwich.make(bathing_in_bismuth)@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
          1·
          2 months ago

          You can add layers to the lore; Minecraft as the first layer, Mass Effect as the second and Warhammer 40k as last. It takes as much time as the last though. But it doesn’t go the extent of all of those. I think Mass Effect did pretty well in that regard

  • chunes@lemmy.world
    28·
    2 months ago

    I’d argue there isn’t one. Not on the scale of LotR. It cannot be overstated how unlikely it was that it happened the way it did.

    • RampantParanoia2365@lemmy.world
      2·
      2 months ago

      The Witcher universe is nearly an identical type of Norse style fantasy, with elves, dwarves, and giants, and 3 is a long epic quest across 3 huge regions. One of my first thoughts when I first played was that it feels like LOTR meets Game of Thrones.

    • Valmond@lemmy.world
      31·
      2 months ago

      World of Warcraft was a LOTR moment for me, thousands of hours of different content in a fantastic world. The extensions killed it ofc.

      • k0e3@lemmy.ca
        2·
        2 months ago

        I don’t really know Minecraft before the acquisition. Is it really that much different?

        • spudsrus@aussie.zone
          9·
          2 months ago

          Secret Friday updates used to drop with new features that weren’t documented and just got to explore and find them.

          I remember updating singleplayer to find cacti added and placing a bunch under a railway tunnel to stop mobs. (They updated the physics to break them when adjacent to another block patch or two later)