New Games That Don’t Suck Thread

Into the Breach is a turn based strategy from the FTL team that is a combination of Edge of Tomorrow and advance wars. You have a team of mechs with specific movesets and strengths and you have to complete increasingly difficult objectives while getting worn down over time.

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It's not out yet. But this looks pretty good. I am probably going to get it.

 
Sakuna of Rice and Ruin is a very good Japanese farming/action game hybrid.
Set in Japanese mythology and featuring a painting like art style.

It’s on PC and console.

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Neon White is a fun shooter/platformer, but it’s horny and Jewish themed, so your mileage may vary.

You use your weapons for specific platforming tasks (double jump, rocket jump, dash, etc.) and you can discard and pick them up at will.

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Intravenous 2 is absolutely stellar if you have a craving for competent stealth game in a similar vein to tom clancy, metal gear solid, or the like. Stealth isn't defacto forced as much as its the much SAFER way to play, its balanced on higher difficulties to where you are one guy with a gun fighting dozens of guys with guns, so you you will need some serious wits to win even if you go loud, because you are JUST a guy, getting shot isn't something you shrug off.

I played the first game and mentioned it in the pirate games / maldavius figtree / thor thread as an example of ACTUAL good 2d lighting.

if you crave stealth, or just tactical gunplay, definitely a good recommendation.
(at least watch intro, it shows gameplay quite well)

 
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Monkey Ball Banana Rumble is the 2nd best game I’ve played in 2024.

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Made by the Yakuza team, it’s a fantastic marble physics puzzle platformer. It’s the classic monkey ball you remember with a few gameplay updates, such as a new boost feature that really encourages you to creatively break the various levels.
No minigames though and the music isn’t as good.


It’s only on switch right now. The performance is good after the later patches.
 
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Intravenous 2 is absolutely stellar if you have a craving for competent stealth game in a similar vein to tom clancy, metal gear solid, or the like. Stealth isn't defacto forced as much as its the much SAFER way to play, its balanced on higher difficulties to where you are one guy with a gun fighting dozens of guys with guns, so you you will need some serious wits to win even if you go loud, because you are JUST a guy, getting shot isn't something you shrug off.

I played the first game and mentioned it in the pirate games / maldavius figtree / thor thread as an example of ACTUAL good 2d lighting.

if you crave stealth, or just tactical gunplay, definitely a good recommendation.
(at least watch intro, it shows gameplay quite well)

He remade the first game in the 2nd games engine and with the new mechanics. It's like $8 as a dlc. I'm going through it now on True. I wish the controller aiming felt a bit better but it's alright. Runs great on steam deck. Even docked at 4k. Some 2D games can be pretty oddly unoptimized nowadays. Also it's on sale right now too
 
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The Toree series of 3D platformers are extremely cheap and kind of fun.

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I think they are some student’s project or something.

They usually cost like 2$ each.
Available on everything except PlayStation.
 
This game absolutely still has everything I dislike about Survival Horror: the combat is too easy and boring and entirely avoidable, which actually gets you a specific ending (death by firing squad for cowardice/desertion), 99% of the game is just finding the next ""key"" to unlock a ""door"", and all the other complaints you're not going to care about if you're a survival horror fan.

If you are a survival horror fan, I think what makes this game stand out the most is the sound design: there is nothing supernatural in the game at all, but they found ways to make mundane, natural and man-made sounds eerie and tense.
I genuinely said "oh dear God, what the fuck is this now?" several times, because air raid or infantry charge sirens are more disturbing in CONSCRIPT than monster noises in most horror games I've played.
I'll brood about WW1 a lot, and I've often thought how if real life was a work of fiction it's genre would be horror. It's like secondhand PTSD from reading. I play WW1 games for fun, but in a way you could say one of my deepest fears is being in essentially that position of huddling in a trench, months of living in an alien landscape among wreckage and charnel, days of being bombarded, to hear the whistle and have to commit what is essentially coerced suicide but with no guarantee that it will be painless. Trench warfare was one of the most sad and bizarre things to happen to humanity and the trenches became a sort of self-contained world that can be explored endlessly. The only other period that I have that same sort of connection to is the long story of American slavery and the Civil War and both are very easy fodder to get me to cry because I've read enough and spent enough time thinking about both that the little mental gap that makes past events feel vaguely unreal, like a story, isn't there anymore. There's just pure evil cloaking the world, same evil then, same evil now, same evil for ever, and at times some thing will remind me of it and I'll feel deep fear and dread.

To me putting anything (like a few games have done) with a whiff of monsters or ghosts in it is hokey and disrespectful to what happened there.
 
Most games suck (whether it is indieslop or AAA past-gen) except homebrew games, which suck less
 
There's one called Fly Knight Prelude that's ok, it's probably only like 6-8 hours long but it's clearly inspired by games like Shadow Tower with dismemberment mechanics.

Did I find it amazing? No, but it's also not another indie roguelike or metroidvania in an already saturated market and I appreciate them trying something different.

Here look at it (the below is recorded in 480p so it doesn't normally look this fuzzy)
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Been playing this one. Its not bad, the fact it looks like an OS Runescape spin-off (graphically speaking) got me to try it. If you're more of a "fast paced" action oriented gamer though, this game can be painful. It's a very slow paced game, you can't rush any action in this game if you want to make progress. The combat is very deliberate, you will be severly punished for any carelessness. Hate the term, but "souls-like" actually fits this one.

I recommend Pseudoregalia:

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It may have a furry mc, but it's not a furry game.
It is a 3D platformer metroidvania with some of the most satisfying movement I've ever seen in a 3D platformer.
It's not really focused on challenges, but more on exploration, however the design of the areas are open enough for you to make your own paths by using all the possible movement mechanics, it makes for a really fun traversal.
It's a really short game, like 3-5h, but the metroidvania design gives it a lot of replayability. I have 16h played because I just can't get tired of hopping around.

I picked this one up because I've heard the music, which is fucking fantastic, and its dirt cheap, but I have yet to play it. Lack of achievements. It's an autistic reason to avoid playing a game, but I like having progress/victory markers I can show off. I've got too many incomplete achievement lists to spend any real time on games without one. There's also a high chance of this one getting achievements later, so I don't want to play through it on the chance I have to do it again when they update it to include them.


Thread tax: Not a super new game (2023), but all the ones I would of said have already been posted. Rhythm Sprout. As the name implies, its a rhythm game. Its not terribly deep, but the story mode is humorous and short enough for a playthrough if you can grab this one on sale. It's simple, so don't go in expecting Beat Saber levels of depth. If you're good at Rhythm games, it's a pretty easy clear.
 
Lies of P scratches the itch that Elden Ring couldn't. It is quite derivative of FromSoft but makes many welcome changes that justifies its existence. The deflect slots in nicely with the souls moveset and expands your options quite a bit. The weapon upgrade system is more open to experimentation, you upgrade your blades instead of the entire weapon and you can change what handle you attach it to to change the moveset. The enemy variety is great and the bosses are quite challenging. If you aren't sick of these games by now, then give it a look.
 
Voice of Cards - Steam/Switch/PS

A series of simple turn based RPGs by Yoko Taro.

The visuals are all set up on cards, but it isn’t a deck builder, it’s closer to a DND inspired rpg than anything.

Very solid stories and decent gameplay. Use the double speed function.

The first and third games in the series are excellent. The second is ok.

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