It kind of works in Elder Scrolls games. You’re typically just some random dude getting roped into stuff you barely understand so it makes sense that you don’t have much of a sense of urgency. And the main quest usually has parts where you’re encouraged to go do other stuff to build up skills and join factions.

Vagrant Story had a really cool swordfighting system.

The Last Argument of Kings by Joe Abercrombie. The final book in what has become one of my favorite fantasy series.

Yep. Its such a great series with such a cool, fleshed out world, its hard to find another scifi series that hits the same way.

It does everything through clever game design, nothing takes you out of the game. No cut scenes or text popping up or freezing everything while dialogue is going on. You’re just in that world.

Its just like with idealizing music eras. People remember the stand outs and forget the bad and mediocre stuff so it seems like everything was better in whatever time.

SNES does have a lot of the better games in lots of great series. Mario, Zelda, Metroid, Castlevania, Final Fantasy etc etc etc.

Though the cheat answer is probably PC since its been around for decades can just evolve with whatever is going on.

Its basically a perfect game. It never feels dated and has one of the most horribly catchy songs ever created by man. Its weird that it’s so fun, its like as simple as you can really boil down a game, its literally just arranging blocks into lines. But it just clicks with the human brain on some deep level.

I’ve been saying this forever too! Boomers were the ones complaining about thier kids playing them back in the day because of the violence and demonic imagery.

In the 90s people called them "Doom-like"s. I usually just say “90s FPS games”. Which I guess could be confusing and make people think I’m talking about framerate, but eh.

1 and 2 are some of my favorite games ever. They’re sort of like Pac-Man or Tetris, they just nailed such a basic, fun gameplay experience that you can always go back to it and get sucked in.

Also props for GZDoom and Brutal Doom updating them for modern hardware.

I’m like that with OG Doom. Its half nostalgia and half it just being a fun game to play.

I’m on the 3rd Liveship Traders book by her right now. So 6 books deep into Elderlings with no plans on stopping. Robin Hobb is a complete genius at character writing.

The third book is excellent as well. Easilly one of my favorite scifi series.

OpenMW may as well be a remake, it runs very well and updates everything for modern hardware. Thats probably the way to go if you want to play Morrowind today.

Morrowind and Oblivion both have a massive fan following but I think always get unfairly overlooked for Skyrim.

I was thinking Soul Reaver too! I think the problem is that it had a handful of mediocre sequels that made people eventually lose interest in the series. But the original game was one of the best on the PS1. I loved the whole improvised combat mechanic where you have to use anything around you in the environment that could hit the vampires’ weakneses.

The Book of the Ancestor series by Mark Lawrence.

That was my only issue with the otherwise excellent Shovel Knight! It had very long levels and only saved once you beat them.

Robin Hobb’s Farseer books fit, though Fitz is different ages throughout the story. Excellent series!

That’s good to hear. I loved Hyperion but have been reluctant to start Endymion because of hearing the same sorts of things about it.