Video Games You Wish Existed

[Ruin Explorer]

I guess. I don't play Bethesda games for "story" though. I play them for exploration and immersion.

Yeah but what's the chicken and what's the egg here?

It's not like BGS games always have worthless writing.

Morrowind's setting and (wild and weird) story were a huge part of why it was so good. Oblivion's writing is dreadful by modern standards, but the plot, at least, was pretty good for a 2005 RPG (not great, but good). Skyrim has a surprisingly decent story, just pretty weak dialogue (and a lot of the story got cut). Fallout 4, inversely, has good dialogue, but a dreadful story/plot that is way too much about indulging the writers thinking they were clever when in fact I guarantee the majority of players figured out what was going on long before it was tediously explained. Starfield is just dreadful from all angles of writing by 2022 standards.

I could go into detail as to why this has happened, but it's largely irrelevant beyond noting that it absolutely could be fixed, and wouldn't even be hard or expensive to fix in their games or do better in a similar game. Further, good writing strongly supports immersion, and bad writing hurts it (again, case in point, Oblivion Remaster and Starfield) so if immersion is important, writing matters. Even good exploration usually requires good and consistent lore, which is also supported by good writing.

 

[Reynard]

Further, good writing strongly supports immersion, and bad writing hurts it

I disagree, at least insofar as good writing" means "well crafted story." The Witcher 3 has great writing by that metric, and has terrible immersion because of that writing. You are never "you" -- you are always Geralt.

 

[Gradine]

Skyrim has better written dialogue than Oblivion, sure, but the quest design is, for the most part, considerably worse

 

[HaroldTheHobbit]

I wish there was a gigantic first person fantasy rpg that had the exact level of playstyles, feel, difficulty (not very) and necessary level of twitch and stress (not much unless you build for it) of Cyberpunk 2077.

I love first person games in theory, but usually give up cause of bad/boring/too fast combat mechanics - I’m old ok! But CP2077 played on hard hits a sweet spot for me. I can build a speeded up melee dudette if I want to and work at stuff, or as in my current playthrough I play a totally op Netrunner that just lazy-destroy stuff and sometimes spray fools with my thermal smart smg.

And there is an excellent story to engage with when I so choose, or I can just farm PDs and gigs for fun and profit.

Now make a fantasy version of it, and you get my money for game and dlcs, and many hundred hours of my gaming time. Just do it!

 

[Reynard]

Oh, thats a good one. They got this program called Megamek that uses...wait for it....java still. It has all the table top wargame rules of Battletech and you can run online games (with no sound). Why for the love of all thats holy is there not a modern version of it is beyond me. I get the franchise was on life support for a long time, but its now the number 2 selling wargame behind warhammer. It's like the Pathfinder of wargaming!

Though some folks are doing cool things with Tabletop simulator even if its all DIY.

Can you recommend some videos for figuring out MegaMek? Some friends and I who normally play D&D on mondays over FG are missing a GM for a few weeks and we have been talking about giving Battletech a try.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

I disagree, at least insofar as good writing" means "well crafted story." The Witcher 3 has great writing by that metric, and has terrible immersion because of that writing. You are never "you" -- you are always Geralt.

That's neither here nor there.

You don't need to have an ultra-specific "guy from a book"-type PC to have a good story or good writing. C.f. Baldur's Gate 3, Fallout: New Vegas, Cyberpunk 2077, etc. etc.

Locking "good writing" down to meaning "well crafted story" doesn't make much sense - especially not as many games widely regarded as "well-written" don't actually have particularly great stories. It's kind of the exception if anything.

 

[Gradine]

I would also definitely push back against the idea that a game without a blank slate player generated protagonist cannot be immersive

 

[payn]

Can you recommend some videos for figuring out MegaMek? Some friends and I who normally play D&D on mondays over FG are missing a GM for a few weeks and we have been talking about giving Battletech a try.

Megamek is a great program it covers everything BT. However, it is archaic and needs to run java as you probably have gathered. Why CGL hasnt made a modern version is beyond me. That said, this is a quick hitting video that covers the basics of getting java and megamek downloaded and working on a 21st century machine.


Here is a history of megamek thats pretty entertaining but 25min long. Id say its optional.

additional useful link
install instructions

 

[Reynard]

Megamek is a great program it covers everything BT. However, it is archaic and needs to run java as you probably have gathered. Why CGL hasnt made a modern version is beyond me. That said, this is a quick hitting video that covers the basics of getting java and megamek downloaded and working on a 21st century machine.


Here is a history of megamek thats pretty entertaining but 25min long. Id say its optional.

additional useful link
install instructions

Thanks!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

The games I wish existed are mostly updated versions of games I love that don’t exist as playable games/apps on anything I own. Most of them I can’t even find close analogs of.

And there’s reasons for that, I understand fully. But I REALLY miss certain games. OTOH, I’m not game-crazy enough to buy/build/upkeep legacy systems around merely to play them. And even if I did, some are not available anywhere anyway.