What videogames are you playing in 2026?

[Ruin Explorer]

Implied setting can be part of story. Nowhere did i suggest that any implied setting is a story. Please do not lie about my statements.



An absurd statement on its face.

Again, and frankly foe the last time, that something is also true of Thing B does not make it in any way false to say thst it is true of Thing A.

You're seeming so mad about this lol, and it's just your vague and insubstantial explanations that have got you here!

 

[GDGD]

I'm looking forward to Star Wars Zero Company, but they haven't provided an update on release yet other than "2026 sometime". In the meantime, I've been playing Timberborn, which is a lot of fun if you like providing beavers with a venue for their dance parties.

 

[Pale Violet Light]

You are 100% effectively no-true Scotsmaning, whether you mean to or not.

There’s a vast array of games I would define as RPGs, just not the subsection that we are discussing. You may accuse me of “few-true Scotsmanning, if you wish. If the role-playing is limited to your head, and doesn’t interact with the mechanics of the game at all, I wouldn’t call it an RPG. I might say that Norin Pintchugger, my Dwarf Priest in Angband, likes ale and hates elves, but there’s no way to express that in game.

• WRPGs typically let you create at least one character (even if they had some pre-determined stuff like their role in the setting), sometimes the entire party. JRPGs typically did not let you create any characters at all.
• WRPGs usually gave you some choices in the story, and those choices became increasingly meaningful ones over the 1990s. JRPGs typically did not offer any choices or those offered were false/circular choices.

The two genres are so incredibly different, it’s a shame they (almost) share an acronym. I vastly prefer the former to the latter, for precisely the reasons you describe. But you are at least playing a (predefined) character in an jRPG, which you can then guide down the carefully-constructed railway tracks, occasionally making (largely-irrelevant) story choices, so it does qualify in my book.

The line for what is and isn’t an RPG is a fuzzy one, on both the tabletop and the computer or console. Clearly you’re a broad church kinda person, while I have a narrower definition. That’s cool. Unless you want an argument, in which case:

Your ridiculous assertion that caves of qud is an RPG just prove your willful ignorance. Just because you have fond memories of playing this primitive game, bereft of meaningful choice, while sheltering in your uncle’s basement during the Blitz, doesn’t mean it’s an RPG by any stretch! Things have moved on, grandpa! You need to play some REAL RPGs, like hidden indie gems The Witcher 3 or Arcanum - but you probably haven’t heard of those. And don’t get me started on “so-called” jRPGs - more like [redacted].

 

[Parmandur]

Your ridiculous assertion that caves of qud is an RPG just prove your willful ignorance

Sed contra, it would appear that Caves of Qud is understood in the collective knowledge of humanity to be an RPG:

 

[Parmandur]

To go back on topic:

I continue my rampage of orgiastic destructive mayham through Donkey Kong Bananza, and this might be one of the most purely satisfying emotional gameplay loops I have ever experienced. The pure joy of ripping up the world brick by brick, paroon Bananza mode when DK becomes an unstoppable Kaiju with a classic J-Pop theme blastong...simply magical.

 

[Steve Jung]

Right now I'm playing Palia, Baldur's Gate 3, Neverwinter Nights: EE, Slay the Spire, FTL, and Tabletop Simulator. I'm taking a break from Fallout 3 and 7 Days to Die. I've recently picked up Europa Universalis III, Dead Island 2, and Tiny Bookshop.

 

[Gradine]

Right now I'm playing Palia, Baldur's Gate 3, Neverwinter Nights: EE, Slay the Spire, FTL, and Tabletop Simulator. I'm taking a break from Fallout 3 and 7 Days to Die. I've recently picked up Europa Universalis III, Dead Island 2, and Tiny Bookshop.

And you have time to play all of the rest of that?!

 

[Pale Violet Light]

Neverwinter Nights: EE

Were the graphics updated at all for the EE? I recall NWN had the worst kind of early 3D graphics, which made it hard to play without throwing up. By the time NWN2 rolled around it was tolerable but the first game really gave me trouble.

 

[Kaodi]

Fallout 4 is still the only Fallout game I've played. I've played through it three times - Minutemen, Railroad, and BoS. Don't think I could ever side with the Institute. I've tried and failed to play it without engaging with the settlement mini-game. Building settlements is so much fun - and being able to access your resources from just about anywhere is so convenient.

I actually ended up with the Institute ending the first time because I never quite found a moment where an off-ramp would have felt organic for my Nora, even though I was waiting for one. Her story does not end happily though. But I think I will remember it, my headcanon for it, for a long time.

 

[Umbran]

You're seeming so mad about this lol, and it's just your vague and insubstantial explanations that have got you here!

Mod note:
Making it personal?
Really?
What, do you like red text, or something?
Cut it out, please.