Insomniac games have never really been my cup of tea, but I will say that just because you don't like them doesn't mean Insomniac is "bad at making fun video games." Clearly lots of people enjoy them.
For me, probably Hades. It's just a great game all around, of course, but it was surprising to me because I had never even remotely enjoyed rogue-likes/lites before.
If someone had told me that a rogue-like would end up being one of my favorite games of the last few years I would have thought they were nuts.
I haven't played the game, just read/heard/seen a lot about it, so please take this with a huge grain of salt. But from everything I've seen...
It's campy. It's stupid. It's ridiculously over the top. It's supposed to be that way. You're supposed to laugh at how dumb it is. If you were wanting a straight-faced "true horror" experience, this isn't it. But it's not trying to be that, either.
The building in Valheim piqued my interest, but I don't want to mess with Early Access. So I've been filling my Valheim-shaped hole with Dragon Quest Builders 2.
Not very far into it, and it's a slow ramp-up so far, but it's been pretty fun.
Been paying full price ($10/mo) on PC for over a year now (after the $1/$5 introductory rates). Absolutely worth it, and the value just keeps getting better as they continue to add games to the library.
And yeah, it's a little weird to assume that people aren't paying full price for it.
Torment is possibly my favorite game of all time, and I feel like I've been chasing that vibe in some ways ever since it released.
I'll second the Baldur's Gate & Pillars of Eternity suggestions, and like others have said, I think Disco Elysium might be the closest approximation to Torment's overall feel. It's weird and deep and amazing.
Some other modern suggestions I'd make would be Pathfinder: Kingmaker and Divinity: Original Sin. Just great CRPGs all around.
And for some deeper (and older) cuts, if you're wanting something more adventure-focused, Sanitarium and I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream are both pretty bonkers adventure games that capture some of the weirder, darker vibes in Torment.
Personally, I'm a fan of collectibles so long as they exist in service of some larger goal. If they're just random "shinies" that serve no purpose but to bump up some completion percentage or give you an achievement, that's just not compelling to me.
Lore-based collectibles (such as in Control) are a bit different to me, though. I think their value (when done well, at least) is self-evident. If I'm interested in a game's lore, I welcome these moments that flesh it out a bit more. If I'm not interested in the lore, its easy enough to just ignore those tidbits. I'd much rather have them than not, though.
Amazon Marketplace really eclipsed Gamestop as a go-to spot for trading used games quite a while ago. You want cheap used games, Amazon or Ebay are much better options, with much better deals 99% of the time.
There are so many alternatives to Gamestop nowadays that losing Gamestop really seems like a non-issue, IMO. As an 80s/90s kid who has never used TikTok, I remember buying & trading games almost exclusively at stores like Gamestop. But at some point the world moved on. And for what it's worth, I think we're all generally better off for it.
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