Community MetaSteam | January 2021 - It's Rare to See a Medium So Well-Done

[Panda Pedinte]

Fangames are amazing

These crossover games are crazy. There was one recently released Super is Hot where it mixes Superhot and Baba is you

SUPER IS HOT by pyrofoux

Break the rules of time and rearrange them to get yourself out of deadly puzzles

pyrofoux.itch.io

 

[Joe Spangle]

This could be fun.

 

[Wildebeet]

This could be fun.

This looks cool. It reminds me of a botched xcom mission where you've got one guy left and are trying to figure out how to kill 3 guys in one move, blow a hole in the wall, and carry someone to the transport without getting shot up too bad. Except this is all in one very white room.

Edit: Oh hey, there's a demo!
Edit2: Also, steam's relevant game suggestions are maybe getting better? It suggested Xcom and Into the Breach, which is what I was thinking watching this. I really hate into the breach...

 

[Dragon1893]

Played a couple of hours of Prey, pretty good so far. Not a fan of the enemy designs though, wish they had come up with something more intimidating.

 

[Echoes]

I'm not familiar with these games. Where should I start?

Like lashman said, the best path is to start from the beginning, it's curious to see how the story develops from game to game.

 

[fantomena]

Lol, Playtracker has CP2077 only at 2,9m owners while it peaked it over 1 mill players ccu at launch.

Sea of thieves is at 2,4 million owners while MS announced back in july 20th the game had sold 1 million copies on Steam, according to webarchive SoT had 21k reviews and now it has almost 73k reviews.

 

[Echoes]

Played a couple of hours of Prey, pretty good so far. Not a fan of the enemy designs though, wish they had come up with something more intimidating.

Which difficulty have you selected?

 

[Dragon1893]

Which difficulty have you selected?

Normal.

 

[Tizoc]

I'm nearing the end of Psychonauts, and its reputation is well deserved.
Really solid level design overall IMO and the platforming is good and at best forgiving.

It's understandable why some would refer to this game as a Platformer, but that is also unfortunate since it falls under the matnra of 'looks kiddie therefore platformer'.

Psychonauts is more of an Action Adventure game, akin to Legend of Zelda. There's mix of platforming, light puzzles, and abilities that are used for progression through the game. Thematically, the first half of the game really nails the feel of Raz training to become a Psychonaut with the 2nd half him going off doing proper Psychonauts missions.

So yeah if you hadn't played Psychonauts yet, do so if you like Action Adventure games. It starts slow but gets better as you get more abilities and progress through the game. I think the lengthy levels help pace the gameplay, as you can do 1 or 2 mindscapes a day, then come back to it the next to progress.

 

[fspm]

I'm more than done with the "it's crap for 50h but it gets better", I've had my share of shitty JRPGs and MMOs and their lies.

That's why you need kids, you make them play for 50h and then come in 'Homework time, now daddy's gonna play'.

 

[Wildebeet]

Finally played through the Creeper World 4 demo yesterday. I have played a kind of stupid amount of Creeper World 3 - it' a favorite brainless time eater of mine, when I could use some light strategy game to just have down time. I was really put off by the move to 3d because polygons are bad of course. But I realized the video and screenshots aren't really how you play the game. It's just the same top down view as it ever was. So, I'm convinced. It's good. I'll be buying this.

 

[Echoes]

Normal.

If you want them more intimidating I would switch to hard, I started on normal and I felt the enemies were a joke. On hard that's a different story

 

[Dragon1893]

If you want them more intimidating I would switch to hard, I started on normal and I felt the enemies were a joke. On hard that's a different story

I was talking about their design, not the difficulty itself.

 

[Prodigy]

I'm nearing the end of Psychonauts, and its reputation is well deserved.
Really solid level design overall IMO and the platforming is good and at best forgiving.

One of my favourite games. When people say a cozy game I think of this and the camp setting. Tim Schafer is a genius and I'll get any game they put out.

 

[Tizoc]

A lashman approved bundle draws near~

Fanatical

www.fanatical.com

 

[eonden]

This is gonna be a chonky list in here for my GOTY Awards. It was a much better year when looking back, with a ton of great games both big and small:

My Goty List:

Spoiler

5.- Hades
Perhaps one of the most polished roguelites games ever, with a very interesting story and a good framing device behind the "death and replay". Otherwise, the "usual" Supergiant flare, with some amazing graphics and music and a gameplay that once it clicks, it just feels fun.

4.- Paradise Killer
Surreal world with a murder mistery? I love every single word out of it. Combining an open world with a proper detective game is something that i have always wanted since LA Noire was just OK, and this small indie did it perfectly.

3.- DOOM Eternal
DOOM Eternal just tries to ape the prequel and it does improve on it in scale, Doom Eternal is more and most of the time better than its predecessor, with more action, more tear, more blood, more metal. DOOM is back, and it is great for it to be back.

2.- Yakuza Like a Dragon
Surprise of the year. I have always liked Yakuza games for their story and goofy characters, but the janky and (for me) non enjoyable combat always acted as a barrier for me to fully join in and play it. And then, they added a full on turn based rpg combat similar to DQ (one of my favourite franchises). The combat really needs some improvements in the sequels, as a ton of the attacks require positioning to be optimal and you have no control over that, but it helped me go over some of my problems with previous Yakuza games and fully enjoy it.

1.- CK3
The sequel to one of the best games ever had one of the highest mountains to overcome given that most of what made CK2 great was how it evolved from a more standarized Grand Strategy game at launch into a more traditional tabletop rpg with each expansion, adding more interesting mechanics along the way. Everyone feared a lot of those additions would be stripped in the new game, to be put in place later on with expansion, but except for some of them (such as republics), most are in the game at launch, in a better more seemless package.
That would be enough to put it as a GOTY contender, but the game also made it way easier for newer players to pick it up and play and made the role playing element more crucial and interesting, making it perhaps, as good as CK2 (full content) right now.

Honorable mentions (in any order):

Spoiler

Horizons Gate - An amazing open world RPG that should get a fuck ton more recognition than it is having. You have the ability to do nearly whatever you want. Rad Complex should be a developer that any RPG or tactics fan keeps an eye on from now onwards.
MB2 Bannerlord - potential for greatness, meh launch but can be easily polished
P4 Golden - great old game, Atlus pls send SMT3HD.
Umarangi Generations - one of the most interesting "gameplay" and world designs
MS:Flight Simulator - one of the biggest achievements in gaming ever
Factorio - one of the best games of all time, should have been in the top 5 if not for the tough competition
Half Life Alyx - would be number 2, but given the competition and there being another category for it, I moved it to mentions
Hylics 2 - improvements in all fronts from one of my most beloved hidden gems in Hylics 1.

Ongoing Game of the Year:

Spoiler

Among Us
I am gonna be honest, this was a tough year for Ongoing Game of the year and Among Us wins because of how big of a monumental shift it was in gaming. Among Us resurgance shows the importance of social games in one of the toughest times for most of us, and how even if great games can easily be missed in the ocean of gaming they still have sometimes the chance to surface. As a game, Among Us is also a nice take on WereWolf / Mafia / Town of Salem with more of an open floor to do murder and fixing stuff.

Honorable mentions (in any order):

Spoiler

Sea of Thieves - SoT is probably the best game to play Coop with friends when you just want to chillax. Rare has done a great job crafting new interesting combat without making the game completely feel like a general Skinner Box you need to be playing every single day.
No Mans Sky - Hello Games keeps on trying to bring to life the game they promised years ago, and as every year, they get closer and closer (you could even say they have already reached that objective some time ago).
Factorio - Factorio is one of the most interesting and deep simulation games. In my heart it should be in the GOTY or Ongoing, but its just such a hard year for both categories I find it hard to give it a place in them.

EA Game of the Year:

Spoiler

Ultrakill
DevilMayQuake.com. New Blood continues their greatness on taking the "90s shooter" genre with new spins, this time taking the "spectacle hack and slash" (or whatever the full name is) approach. Great shooting, great enemy variety, great hidden secrets, great everything lets be honest. Anyone who loves shooters should just throw money into the screen to play this.

Honorable mentions (in any order):

Spoiler

Mount and Blade 2: Bannerlord- potential for greatness, meh launch but can be easily polished
Hardspace: Shipbreaker - One of the best chillax games ever. You get to dismantle
Due Process - One of the more interesting tactical shooters games,with a planning stage that will easily go to shit because it always go to shit. Anyone who likes Siege, Valorant, or CSGO, should get it and try it. Even if you dont like it, it will help you better plan in those games.
Satisfactory - Technically 2019 game, but like Factorio one of the best chillax games, with the main problem being how much the bottlenecks and grind feel sometimes when compared to Factorio.

VR GOTY:

Spoiler

Half Life Alyx
One of the best games of the year, exclusive to VR. It might not be the most ambitious game in VR (Boneworks probably is), but the polish and combat just feel perfect for anyone wanting to see what "VR can do" and what "VR is about". The environments truly feel alive and the setpieces really make it feel like you are there. The story keeps a nice pace, being simple but effective on directing you over what you need to do at any moment.
Also, any VR game that requires you to pick things up needs to copy the RUSSELLS. Probably one of the most low key gamechangers in VR, it just felt so natural once you got the hank. Thank gor H3VR copied it ASAP.

Honorable mentions (in any order):

Spoiler

Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners - a great shooter that just lacks the polish from HLA. I hope we see similar stuff coming from VR devs more often.
Star Wars Squadrons - a great dogfighting game in VR. It just lacks the proper VR controller support, as playing with a controller while on VR feels... off.
Population One - I do not like BR, but BR in VR with this kind of combat feels very interesting.

Turd of the year

Spoiler

Warcraft 3 Reforged
So we had a remaster of one of the most influential RTS games ever, only for it to come in the most dissapointing way, with only small changes to it, fucking up a ton of the charm of the game. It also somehow managed to clamp down on the mod community! And to improve it, it also retroactively fucked up the previous owners of the game with an update to the previous version of the game.

Honorable mentions (I dont even need to comment on them cause they are all self explanatory):

Spoiler

Amazon launched a game and then unlaunched it
Stadia exists?
Are the 2020 graphic card real?
Sony launching Horizon on PC

 

[lashman]

This is gonna be a chonky list in here for my GOTY Awards. It was a much better year when looking back, with a ton of great games both big and small:

i find your lack of Tell Me Why disturbing ...

 

[eonden]

i find your lack of Tell Me Why disturbing ...

Didnt play it.

 

[lashman]

Didnt play it.

 

[Tizoc]

Interview with animator of upcoming game, Season

Season Interview with Senior Character Animator Eugene Jarvis

Eugene shares his role in helping this unique game come to life

t.co

 

[Wildebeet]

I was talking about their design, not the difficulty itself.

I think you would be intimidated if you saw a shadow-goop-mug monster IRL.

 

[lashman]

 

[LEANIJA]

"Celebrate Lucasfilm's rich legacy in games" -- and then show only EA & other thirdparty games. Silly.

LucasArts was a great adventure games developer for me, never really cared for their Star Wars stuff. But then again, LucasArts has been long dead, and using "Lucasfilm Games" as an umbrella brand from SW games is superfluous in my opinion.

 

[Li Kao]

Got Hades ending. Now to unlock the epilogue

 

[Deku]

All locations for Hitman 3 are revealed

In total six locations and they are:
Dubai, UAE
Dartmoor, United Kingdom
Berlin, Germany
Chongqing, China
Mendoza, Argentina
Carpathian Mountains, Romania

HITMAN 3 - All Locations Revealed - IO Interactive

Travel the world to six unique and exciting locations in HITMAN 3, the dramatic conclusion to the World of Assassination trilogy.

www.ioi.dk

 

[C-Dub]

All locations for Hitman 3 are revealed

In total six locations and they are:
Dubai, UAE
Dartmoor, United Kingdom
Berlin, Germany
Chongqing, China
Mendoza, Argentina
Carpathian Mountains, Romania

HITMAN 3 - All Locations Revealed - IO Interactive

Travel the world to six unique and exciting locations in HITMAN 3, the dramatic conclusion to the World of Assassination trilogy.

www.ioi.dk

Stoked to play this a year from now. Or sooner if they put the whole trilogy on sale on Xbox.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

i find your lack of Tell Me Why disturbing ...

it was ok

 

[lashman]

it was ok

 

[fantomena]

I feel Dontnod caught light in ther bottle with the first LiS, everything thing since then has not been as good.

LiS - fantastic
LiS 2 - okay
Vampyr - decent (might try again)
Tell Me Why - decently good
Twin Mirrior - mediocre, edging towards bad

I don't have much faith in future projects from them.

 

[OMEGALUL]

Ubisoft removed that LFG post on the Division 2 steam forum, mistake or is something coming

 

[AHA-Lambda]

 

[dex3108]

Guy on local forum just posted that his package sent from US on December 21st, departed Frankfurt Airport on January 9th and today departed Vienna airport. So i guess that my GPU is probably lost.

 

[Dragon1893]

I give up on FFXIII-2, it crashes constantly.

 

[fantomena]

From SonyERA:

• Silent Hills is PS excusive, AAA, made by Sony Japan Studio
• FF7R PS5 and PC announcement this year, maybe march
• Bluepoint acquired by Sony, remaking multiple MGS games
• Life is Strange 3 announcement this year

 

[Arsene]

Ubisoft removed that LFG post on the Division 2 steam forum, mistake or is something coming

Thats a bit odd considering they didn’t remove the other 2 posts they made.

 

[AHA-Lambda]

I need Life is Strange 1 part 2
Come on SE you've done that shit before

 

[OMEGALUL]

Thats a bit odd considering they didn’t remove the other 2 posts they made.

Ubisoft is weird with forums, the other day I had issues with AC Syndicate the other day, an old ass game from 6 years ago and a developer offered some help. They are monitoring forums which is weird for a company that isn't supporting the steam ecosystem anymore.

 

[CommodoreKong]

Ubisoft removed that LFG post on the Division 2 steam forum, mistake or is something coming

What was the LFG post?

 

[Mor]

Thats a bit odd considering they didn’t remove the other 2 posts they made.

Not weird considering the other two threads are now locked and are not directly headed to users (as they are for rules and bud reports) the one they deleted is the one that got flooded by "release on Steam" kind of posts.

No, this threads don't mean anything, those are just automated and scripted procedures for the worker who has orders to post it on every single community, even tho TD2's is completely hidden and it's not used for anything game related.

If it's coming at some point there will be other signs, this one isn't one of those.

What was the LFG post?

 

[Snakethesniper]

Anime XCOM on sale!
very nice xcom-ish game with character customization in terms of builds.
Only negative is that the game is not really optimized so you can expect drops in various situations

 

[Deku]

I give up on FFXIII-2, it crashes constantly.

That's bad. Have you tried the ff13fix mod? I played it a few months ago and there were no problems for me at all

 

[Dragon1893]

Anime XCOM on sale!
very nice xcom-ish game with character customization in terms of builds.
Only negative is that the game is not really optimized so you can expect drops in various situations

Can't afford any games right now but this is definitely on my to buy list. I think I asked for impressions a few pages back but didn't get any answers.
I've always loved this kind of game and I seem to enjoy the genre more and more as time passes.

That's bad. Have you tried the ff13fix mod? I played it a few months ago and there were no problems for me at all

The one that was linked on the previous page? Yeah. Maybe I did something wrong.

 

[Swenhir]

I feel Dontnod caught light in ther bottle with the first LiS, everything thing since then has not been as good.

LiS - fantastic
LiS 2 - okay
Vampyr - decent (might try again)
Tell Me Why - decently good
Twin Mirrior - mediocre, edging towards bad

I don't have much faith in future projects from them.

Haven't played through LiS yet but is it weird that I really, really liked Remember Me?

 

[Wildebeet]

Anime XCOM on sale!
very nice xcom-ish game with character customization in terms of builds.
Only negative is that the game is not really optimized so you can expect drops in various situations

How replayable is this game? XCOM you can play pretty much forever if you want. Is it the sort of thing where you get through the story and there's not much to do, or can you live with it for a while?

 

[Tizoc]

 

[lashman]

Haven't played through LiS yet but is it weird that I really, really liked Remember Me?

nope ... it's great

 

[AHA-Lambda]

I'm not trying to be contrarian honest
but I really didn't like Remember Me

 

[lashman]

I'm not trying to be contrarian honest
but I really didn't like Remember Me

 

[AHA-Lambda]

 

[BlueOdin]

So I went into the Steam Beta for the Series X because I remember reading that it finally supports the screenshot button. Now that I played a little bit Yakuza 7 and hammered on the screenshot button but no picture was taken. Is there something else I need to do other than activating the extended support for Xbox controllers? Using it makes the Series X controller show up in the controller configuration but I can't bind the screenshot button.