Sterile_Technique

…well fuck, I didn’t actually expect the former. This world would be so much better without that religious nonsense. -_-

But like… why? Does their religion actually have some angst with music, or is this another one of those “god told me so in a dream!” kinda bullshit?

If “Secret World Legends” isn’t already on your radar, it might be up your alley.

Haven’t played GW1, but SWL has a moveset similar to what you described.

It’s set in modern day, with the premise that all myths, conspiracy theories, urban legends etc are all true - and frequently need to be contained. There are three factions: STRONGLY recommend you choose Illuminati (best faction story line by a long shot).

The investigative missions will make you feel like a moron, but in a weirdly good way. SUPER satisfying to figure them out without looking up hints online.

Hate:

Lazy UI porting between PC and console. It goes both ways - radial menus showing up in a PC game or a joystick-controlled-cursor in a console game. M+KB vs controller are not comparable input methods, so trying to manage the UI with one that was built for the other is always a massive pain in the ass.

Inventory restrictions in games that throw a LOT of shit your way. Looking at you, Bethesda. Fortunately there’s usually a mod of some kind to make items weigh like 0.01 lbs, or kick your slots up to 9999 or something. Sometimes realism adds to the experience… inventory management isn’t one of those times.

Sluggish controls. I want to actually enjoy the Dark Souls games SO BAD - they look beautiful, I fuckin love that dark fantasy setting… but moving and combat feel like I’m driving a school bus with boxing gloves on my hands and diving flippers on my feet. I get that the cumbersome controls are a huge part of what makes it difficult, and that the difficulty is what a lot of players are after, but personally that’s not a flavor of difficulty I’ll ever be able to enjoy.

Love:

Good QOL features, especially involving the topics above. Like ‘Hot Deposit’ certain items to all designated storages in range, or AoE loot when a bunch of foes die in a pile. The quick loot style menu from Fallout 4 is another great example. Love that stuff!

Lore. Good story writing, believable/relatable characters, ESPECIALLY the antagonists. Hitting the sweet spot there is a quick ticket to my all time favorites.

Environmental challenges, with fun ways to overcome them. When I was new to Ark, one of the biggest challenges in my first play through was getting into the super cold zones and not freezing to death. My cold weather gear didn’t cut it… the solution I came up with was to tame a paracer (kind of an elephant looking dino) and build a platform on its back: and made like 6 camp fires on the platform. So the I was, trudging through an insanely cold environment on a flaming elephant, cozy as can be. As a veteran player now, there are SO much more efficient methods to solving that problem, but the experience gave a unique sense of accomplishment, which is the kind of thing that got me hooked on that game.

Escorts matching the move speed of the player. 'nuff said.

This isn’t my area of expertise, but as I understand the present climate crisis, it’s actually misleading to say we’re “nearing the point of no return” as so many of these kinds of articles do.

Every single day we pass a brand new point of no return because every day we keep pumping fuel into positive feedback loops that are already in motion. Not only will biking to work not do shit; but even if humans just went extinct right now and all industry/pollution/etc came to a 100% stop, the climate will still continue to (albeit more slowly) spiral into new extremes. What we’re feeling today is the ‘find out’ stage of climate inaction decades ago; and the damage we’re doing today won’t be be tangible for decades to come.

Best case scenario is the coolest of an array of hellscapes - we’re in damage control mode. Rather, we should be in damage control mode; what we’re actually in is grind-away-at-our-9-to-5-while-we-watch-oligarchs-consume-our-planet mode.

Man, I’m really under-utilizing GOG.

Most of these aren’t really ‘hidden’ but there are some good deals on some of my favorites right now:
Skyrim - $10, which gives you access to:
Enderal - Free but requires Skyrim in library
Witcher III + DLCs - $15
Raft - $13.39
Grounded - $24
Satisfactory - $16.49
Subnautica & Subnautica Below Zero - $18
Valheim - $12
Age of Empires - $5
Halo: Master Chief Collection (7 Halo games) - $10

This is all a reminder that Reddit was never anything special - the people on it were. The trending of malicious compliance by moderators to an abusive CEO really highlights how exceptional people can be. This whole following corrupt rules thing in a way that just lets the corruption burn itself out is fucking beautiful.

…it’s like a captain going down with the ship, while cracking Chuck Norris jokes all the way to the grave. This is what the internet was made for.