Over the past year or two I've been writing "reviews" (mostly a short paragraph or two) on Goodreads for books I've read, and I enjoy looking back on what I've read and what I thought about it. So I would like to do the same for the games I played, and also better organize my backlog so I know what's next to play. So I've been looking for a Goodreads-like for video games and found some alternatives, but I thought I'd check here if anyone has any recommendations.

What I'm looking for is:

• Being able to rate and review games played
• Some way to create lists (much like Goodreads "to read" shelf and the like)

So it's not a large wish list really. After a short search I've found a few sites that seem to fulfill those requirements and they look fairly equal, so I can't really decide which one to commit to (if any):

• https://www.backloggd.com/
• https://backloggery.com/
• https://ggapp.io/
• https://www.grouvee.com/

Since 95% of all games I play are on Steam, just using what's already there could work as well I guess. Collections could be used for backlog management, and the Steam reviews handle rating and review. But for some reason I'm apprehensive about rating games on Steam, probably because it feels very public and I'm doing this only for myself.

Another approach is to use an excel sheet (or similar) to keep track of everything, but it feels... Boring, I suppose? But owning your own data is always nice I suppose!

Do the people here on Tildes have any experience using any of the methods above and can recommend one? Or do you do something completely different than what I've listed here that's working well for you?

What gaming genre could use a renaming?
Why? (What makes its current name a bad/imprecise/clumsy one?)

Also, an optional follow-up:
What would you propose as a better name for the genre?
Why? (What makes it better?)

Edit: This community is amazing, thank you all for all of your suggestions. Feel free to keep them coming. I have a Google doc full of ideas with my comments that I'm going to drop on him. I was trying to respond to everyone and then discovered that Tildes will rate limit you. So if I don't respond to you, I'm sorry but I definitely read your comment and checked out your suggestions!

My friend suffers from depression and lives 6 hours away from me so the happiest I see him is when we are regularly gaming together. The problem is that I haven't been able to find a game we both wanted to play for a while.

I just cannot get into all the survival crafting games that seem to dominate co-op gaming these days. I am looking for suggestions for anything else. Also, it needs to be an online co-op instead of a couch co-op.

His computer isn't the best so that needs to be a consideration, nothing wrong with older games. Ideally we are talking about PC games on Steam.

Examples:

• we played a ton of Risk of Rain 2, probably the last game we played a lot together
• we have played through Halo co-op a bunch of times.

Who has ideas for me?

Alright, so one of my favorite things to do at night is throw on a great audiobook and play a video game...but it has to be a very specific type of video game. No meaningful dialogue or plot, no math or strategizing, and lots of hyper addictive gameplay that you can almost do subconsciously.

Here are the games I've found like this so far:

1. Trials Rising (and it's predecessors). I've actually made some global leaderboards in this game. It seems so simple when you start the campaign mode, then you learn about ninja mode and it's suddenly a different game.

2. Olli Olli world

3. Skater XL, Session, Skate series, Tony Hawk series

4. Lonely Mountains Downhill

5. Descenders

6. Any multiplayer shooter (COD, Fortnite, etc.)

7. Trackmania - not my thing but it definitely scratches this itch for a lot of people.

8. Mudrunner and Snowrunner series.

Here are some that did not work for me.

1. Sekiro - I just get too into it. Can't multitask.

2. Vampire Survivors - just not into it.

3. Rogue likes - never enjoyed them.

4. No Man's Sky - amazing game but I prefer to play it co-op. Already conquered it anyway.

Any other suggestions?

Hey, so I'd really just like to get an idea that's been in my head for god knows how long out into a program, even if it's just a demo of what I've imagined. But I never had enough knowledge in a particular engine to just get the idea out. My main programming knowledge is from Java classes, and I've dabbled in enough in HTML/CSS, Javascript, SQL, Powershell, etc. enough to get through classes, projects, small scripts, deployments, etc, so I have programming experience from a conceptual point. But I've never really worked with GUI elements in a serious manner outside the Cocoa IDE handling all the heavy lifting. Any time I get the itch to tackle this I give GameMaker or Godot or something else a try via some tutorial, I never get to the end of it. I figured learning by example would help, but I forget most of the basics on how I'm supposed to set up an object or attribute... Then I try it the other way around where I try to learn it bottom-up and I get overwhelmed if I lose my way in the middle of a process... It's extremely frustrating, I swear I've been through this about three times in the last seven years or so.

I'm curious, has anyone had this much trouble with this? What did you do, what was your in?

I was working on a VR experience showing wealth inequality in true scale. By a habby coincidence I discovered a game jam with the rather blatant title Fuck Capitalism Gamejam 2024 which just happened to end in a time span where I'd might be able to finish off my game. So, great, now I have a deadline! I began to plan what I could reasonably expect to finish within that time frame.

But today, I read the game jam page a little more closely. Turns out the deadline is for voting on the submitted games. The game jam had run out a long time ago. So, no deadline. And of course, I became aware that submitting it to said gamejam wouldn't have mattered much anyway.

Guess I just have to keep working on the stupid project. Everything just feels so pointless, because, well, I guess it is. And trying to build up some pretend excitement gets a bit stale.

Anyhow, how are you folks dealing with the good ol' what's-the-point-of-it-all feelies? Is life just a yo-yo movement between hopelessness and semi-engaged pretence of meaning, or are there other roads to travel?

This thread is for organizing a group to play Scythe online. Everyone mentioned has either been in my specific thread about Scythe months ago or mentioned it elsewhere. I FINALLY got around to getting the Steam version in addition to the Invaders from Afar dlc since it was a bundle.
I'd love to get a Discord group started so we can all finally play together and ultimately shoot the shit and have some fun.
Also I couldn't figure out how private messaging works which is embarrassing but this is way easier, anyway.
If this gets enough traction in the next couple of days I'll make us a discord group and we can go from there as far as scheduling goes. I'd also be open to other games if the group wants to do so. 🤘
@0d_billie
@guissmo
@Beowulf
@Notcoffeetable
@TreeFiddyFiddy
@ocdbear
@AugustusFerdinand
@TownshipTeleporter
@clerical_terrors
@KapteinB
@Spongey

I'm currently researching the 4x Alpha Centauri, and I'm wondering what, in your mind, sets it apart from other 4x, or what makes it better.
Thanks for providing some rationale and not just dumping on other 4x

Recently I just finished Hitman: World of Assassination's campaign, where the main campaign is basically a tutorial for the main "meat" of the game, i.e. contracts, Freelancer, and pushing down your assassination time for the story missions.

I really like that style of game, on this site famously I'm always talking about Monster Hunter which functions similarly (main campaign into grinding out for materials and decos), and was wondering if anyone else had any similar games.

I think roguelikes fit this a bit too, but for the sake of this topic not devolving into "what's your favorite roguelike", hopefully there are different suggestions! (Backpack Hero does something like this lol)

Figured it would be easier to just set up a mega thread. @phoenixrises posted a good resource with the Games Recap website, but I was unsure if people were going to use it to discuss trailers or not.

Games Shown
Lego Horizon Adventures
No More Room In Hell 2
Harry Potter Quidditch Champions
CUFFBUST
Star Wars Outlaws
Neva
Sid Meier's Civilization VII
Black Myth: Wukong
Once Human
Warhammer 40,000: Space Marine 2
Metaphor: ReFantazio
Batman: Arkham Shadow - VR game
Street Fighter 6 Season 2 DLC
Tears of Metal
Dragon Ball: Sparking! ZERO
Delta Force: Hawk Ops
FATAL FURY: City of the Wolves
Battle Crush
Mecha BREAK
Blumhouse Games compilation trailer
Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita's Rewind
Deer & Boy
Kingdom Come: Deliverance II
Slitterhead
Killer Bean
Cairn
Wanderstop
Unknown 9: Awakening
Enotria: The Last Song
The First Descendant
Outersloth Funded Games - Games being funded by Among Us money.
SONIC X SHADOW GENERATIONS
Dune: Awakening
Battle Aces
The Finals Season 3
Alan Wake 2 DLC Expansion "Night Springs"
New world: Aeternum
Honkai: Star Rail - Art of Dreaming
Dark & Darker
Kunistu-Gami: Path of the Goddess
Hyper Light Breaker
Party Animals
skate. - Long trailer to say they've basically got nothing to show.
Palworld - Sakurajima Update
Valorant - Console Trailer
Squad Busters - Live action trailer with no gameplay (for a mobile game?)
Monster Hunter Wilds
Phantom Blade Zero

Discovered Go not too long ago, finding it quite enjoyable.

I know there's plenty of reading material out there, but I'm unaware of what exactly would be worthwhile, especially for someone who's been dabbling around at it for 3 months at most.

Grateful for any and all suggestions!

What are some games that have inspired you to break out a real pen(cil) and paper?

How do you feel about games that implicitly or explicitly want you to take notes?

Do you have any recommended “note”-worthy games?

I have never played a tabletop RPG before, but was absolutely fascinated with this Kult playthrough that the YouTube algorithm decided to show me for some reason. I watched the whole thing! The "gnostic" backdrop the lore has is spellbinding.

It's hard to gauge its popularity just from YouTube videos, but I'm curious to know if anyone on Tildes has played it, and if so, what your experiences have been. And do you know of any TTRPGs that are similar? Vampire the Masquerade, maybe? My friend group isn't into this sort of thing at all, but maybe I can persuade them...

(In case you manage to miss the copious warnings at the start of that video, Kult's themes are quite graphic. Fair warning!)

If you're me, you would be someone who would be mildly interested in VR for almost 8 years but never actually managed fork over the money to get a headset. Maybe because you couldn't or because you were afraid to spend so much money on something you don't even know if it would give you motion sickness.

Last week, I decided that now is the time. I've looked over several devices, like Valve Index, Pico 4, Meta Quest 2 and 3. But my mind was kinda made up, I knew that I would either go for Valve Index or Meta Quest 3. I picked up MQ3.

The thing arrived on saturday morning. Time to play some games.

I boot up my desktop and install Steam VR, time to play Half Life Alyx... Cards on the table: I don't consider myself a Half Life fan. Not because I disliked the games, it's just I never played them when they came out. I can see why they are fan favorites and how impressive they were at the time, but I missed the chance to be wowed by them when I played them so many years later.

But HL Alyx is fixing that.

First, being "inside" the game was new. As someone who always played games on a 2D screen, I spent way more time than I care to admit looking at different objects, rotating them, interacting with them, etc. Once that novelty wore off, I proceeded with the game.

There's a scene where someone throws you a weapon. He tells you not worry, it's not loaded... Well, except it was, and when that thing dropped on the floor, it fired, I legit got jump scared. Later, when the crab thingies jump at you, I legit panicked and started shooting hoping that I would hit them. Dark sections? Legit horror.

I... Do not remember the last time I felt any of these things. If this was a conventional game, the gun falling would at best get a chuckle from me. Crab thingies? Meh, just aim and shoot them. Dark sections? Just another gaming section.

I think I get it now. I get why so many people like VR games. It's different. Because it's more immersive, you feel more involved with what's happening. Now that I'm writing this, yeah it sounds obvious, duh, but in a VR game it feels like it's you who is inside the game, in a 2D screen it feels like you, but at the same time you also understand that it's not you, it's your character who is inside the game.

I've been also trying Job Simulator.

As far as games go, this isn't really a "game". It feels more like a fun tech demo "hey, this is what you can do with a VR". An equivalent game with conventional 2D screen and controllers wouldn't get any attention from the public, and as for me, I would turn it off after 5 or 10 minutes.

But, it was legit fun. The Gordon Ramsay Robot yelling at me to cook food just made me grab everything and throw them at his face. In the office, I would throw things over to other cubicles like an annoying kid.

It's exhilarating to rediscover the joy and immersion that gaming can offer through the lens of VR. The sense of presence and tangibility breathes new life into familiar experiences, reigniting that childlike wonder I once felt.

So I have heard of the game for a while, but I am not a fan of zombie games. I was recently shown a video apparently about it (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XuKU2RziLo), and the game itself looks pretty awesome from my point of preferences.
The problem? None really, except... zombies. Just not a fan at all.

Edit: I like the menu options, though they seem like they could be clunky. I like the survival and crafting aspects.

So my question is this: Are there any games similar to this style of gameplay that might do without the zombies?

Would prefer on Steam/Linux, but if you have a similar equivalent that's great. Thanks. :)

I'm working on a new boss fight for a 5-person level 8 party of fairly new people. I wanted to give them something completely different, so I figured a fight on a small 20x20 circular rooftop with a stealthy djinn might be fun. I'd love to hear thoughts on how to make this a good time. My main idea is to force the party to figure out creative ways to find the djinn, since they don't have any way to see invisible creatures in their normal set of abilities. Things like throwing sand in the air, or holding ropes between each other to detect the silent wind motion as he moves around. Stuff that is more flavorful than a normal straight fight.

I'll also be throwing players off the roof, forcing them to make agility saves to grab hold of ropes that are on the edge of the building, then strength checks to pull themselves back up. Have some moderate injuries occur if they roll badly. What suggestions would you have for me to make this a fun fight?

Izel, Guardian Djinn

Large Elemental (Air), Lawful Neutral

---

• Armor Class 17 (natural armor)
• Hit Points 152 (16d10 + 64)
• Speed 30 ft., fly 60 ft.

---

STR	DEX	CON	INT	WIS	CHA
18 (+4)	22 (+6)	18 (+4)	16 (+3)	20 (+5)	18 (+4)

---

• Saving Throws Dex +10, Con +8, Wis +9, Cha +8
• Skills Insight +9, Perception +9, Stealth +10
• Damage Resistances lightning, thunder; bludgeoning, piercing, and slashing from nonmagical attacks
• Condition Immunities charmed, exhaustion
• Senses truesight 60 ft., passive Perception 19
• Languages Auran, Common
• Challenge 12 (8,400 XP)

---

Elemental Demise. If the djinni dies, its body disintegrates into a warm breeze, leaving behind only equipment the djinni was wearing or carrying.

Innate Spellcasting. The djinni's innate spellcasting ability is Charisma (spell save DC 16, +8 to hit with spell attacks). It can innately cast the following spells, requiring no material components:



At will:

Mage Armor: You touch a willing creature who isn’t wearing armor, and a protective magical force surrounds it until the spell ends. The target’s base AC becomes 13 + its Dexterity modifier. The spell ends if the target dons armor or if you dismiss the spell as an action.

Greater Invisibility: (Concentration) You or a creature you touch becomes invisible until the spell ends. Anything the target is wearing or carrying is invisible as long as it is on the target’s person. The target can attack or cast spells without becoming visible.

3/day each:
> Wind Wall: Requires concentration. You create a wall of strong wind on the ground at a point you can see within range. The wall is up to 50 feet long, 15 feet high, and 1 foot thick, or a ringed wall up to 20 feet in diameter, 15 feet high, and 1 foot thick. It lasts for the duration, blocking arrows, smaller creatures, gases, and fog.
> Lightning Bolt: You release a bolt of lightning that arcs toward a target you can see within range. A line of electricity 100 feet long and 5 feet wide blasts out from you in a direction you choose. Each creature in the line must make a Dexterity saving throw, taking 8d6 lightning damage on a failed save, or half as much damage on a successful one.

Actions

Multiattack. The djinni makes two scimitar attacks.

Wind Blade. Melee Weapon Attack: +10 to hit, reach 10 ft., one target. Hit: 15 (2d8 + 6) slashing damage plus 5 (1d10) lightning damage.

Windforce Blade (Enhanced Multiattack). If Izel hits a target with both attacks during his Multiattack, the target is pushed 10 feet away from him.

Whirlwind (1/Day). As an action, Izel transforms into a whirlwind for one turn, moving in a straight line up to 60 feet. Any creature in the path of the whirlwind must make a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw. On a failed save, the creature takes 18 (3d12) bludgeoning damage and is thrown 15 feet in a random direction and knocked prone. On a successful save, the creature takes half damage and is not thrown or knocked prone.

Legendary Actions

Izel can take legendary actions, choosing from the options below.

Wind Push. After every enemy's turn, Izel rolls a D20; on a 13 or higher, he uses the wind to move that enemy if they are within 60 feet of him. The target must succeed on a DC 16 Strength saving throw or be pushed 15 feet away from Izel and knocked prone.

Wind Buffet. Izel creates a small burst of intense wind around himself. Each creature within 10 feet of Izel must succeed on a DC 16 Dexterity saving throw or take 17 (3d10) bludgeoning damage and be pushed 10 feet away from him. Using Wind Buffet breaks Izel’s concentration and ends his turn.

Lair Actions

• At the start of each turn, roll a D20. On a 10 or higher, all creatures on the battlefield are pushed 5 feet in a random direction determined by a d8 roll. This unpredictable movement simulates the chaotic nature of the winds that Izel commands.

Hi y'all,

I owned a PlaySation as a kid, but I don't remember playing it much. I was much more stuck to my Nintendo 64 playing Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, and MegaMan 64.

Well, I got it in my head that I wanted to play MegaMan Legends 2, which only came out on PlaySation as far as I can tell. I've started playing through MegaMan Legends again before I get to the sequel, and I'm having a really good time.

I was hoping I could hear form y'all about some of your favorite games so I could dip my toes deeper into the PS1 library. What are some of your favorites? Anything particularly odd, unique, or with a very specific point of view? I'll try any genre. Some games I've dabbled with or had my eye on to play: Parasite Eve, Vagrant Saga, Xenogears, Koudelka, and most notably perhaps, Metal Gear Solid. I've never played any Metal Gear games, but the story and world building is so interesting from what I know about it that I really want to give it a try. Also, if anyone knows of some cool Japanese only fan-translate games, would really love to hear about those.

tldr: favorite ps1 game? any weirdo shit i should play?

edit 03/31: the love for ps1 is HUGE. thanks to everyone for all of the great responses. will respond in time. been taking time to sample a bunch of these. my experience with tildes's gaming community has been awesome.

The game approaches greatness -- it is within sight of excellence -- but something holds it back. Maybe it's a glaring, unignorable flaw, or maybe it squanders an excellent idea with subpar execution.

Whatever it is, the game could have been great but instead it's, unfortunately, something less.

What a game that's like that for you? Why?

Edit: Well, given there's already a vaguely positive reception to the idea, I've went ahead and set up the server! It's by no means a finished product yet, but it's at least a start!

Here's the link: https://discord.gg/FqArkERU2U

About a year ago, I was running a pretty active, small community board game server and it was a lot of fun until most of the regulars got busy with life.

After that, things happened and it fell by the wayside, but my time here with Tildes makes me really want to bring it back, I just wanted to gauge interest first. The idea is that anyone could set events, anyone can invite people, etc. Obviously, it wouldn't be an open server, but one in the same vein as Tildes, but in board game community form.

Specifically, things like hidden role games and other more complicated games really feel like they shine when there's a solid group of regulars that are able to teach newbies how to play.

(And selfishly, this would be a great way for me to learn new board games, as well)

Given the fact that Yuzu (a Nintendo Switch emulator) and Citra (a Nintendo 3DS emulator) were recently taken down by Nintendo's legal team, is there a reason why Dolphin (an emulator for Gamecube and Nintendo Wii) is still going strong? Did Dolphin take any extra steps to protect themselves from lawsuits, or it's just a case of Nintendo taking their time?

Steam Sale time again! Post any amazing games or hidden gems you think others would like. I'll start: Mr Shifty is an amazing 2d top-down that's crazy fun (especially for its price!). I'm about to get a SteamDeck, so am hunting these style of games in particular.

I realized that some games I play fall into specific categories that could be their own sub-genre, but are either too specific, haven't been around long enough, or there's a "good enough" combination of genres that could be used to describe them that makes it impossible to find more in that genre.

I'm interested if anyone else has any of these weird little sub-genres that they enjoy and wanted to share.

Feel free to add any games that you think fit into sub-genres other people describe

I finally swapped my pre-historic phone for something a little more current and would like to play some games on it. I'm not a big fan of touch controls for games, so I got one of those adapters that allows me to play games with my Xbox controller while the phone is attached to it. Right now I would be interested in MMORPGs as well as things that resemble MMORPGs. Other than that, I appreciate pixel art in general. I am well aware of emulators and will be looking into those, but I have played emulated games for years so it might be interesting to try something else for now. The phone can probably handle most games unless we're talking about something very intensive.

Preferably games that were either made for mobile or adapted well. I don't care for tiny text or tiny UIs.

Zaniness, wackiness, and fast pace are appreciated.

Thanks!

For me it's bunny hopping. If I can't sail across a map at 100km/h in an FPS, it'll be very difficult for me to get into it. I get that I'm missing out on a lot of good games, but normal movement just feels so empty and slow.

For those who don't know what bunny hopping is, it's a mechanic in primarily FPS games where you jump repeatedly instead of walking/running. This allows you to move much faster and pull off some complex manoeuvres.

Anyway I'm curious to see if others have admittedly ridiculous requirements like this.

Looks like there was renewed interest in this idea as the old topic has seen some recent posts. It’s been my experience that older topics don’t tend to get a lot of attention when they resurface, so I figure we were due for a refresh.

As such, here’s round 2!

This is a thread for game recommendations, but not just any standard game recommendations.

This is a thread for game recommendations where you have a very specific thing that you're looking for.

Maybe you're looking for a certain type of experience that can't easily be summarized with genres and tags. Maybe you're looking for a game that will evoke a particular feeling that's hard to put into words.

Whatever you're looking for, share your desired specificity below, and let people try to recommend games that fit it.

This is a thread for game recommendations, but not just any standard game recommendations.

This is a thread for game recommendations where you have a very specific thing that you're looking for.

Maybe you're looking for a certain type of experience that can't easily be summarized with genres and tags. Maybe you're looking for a game that will evoke a particular feeling that's hard to put into words.

Whatever you're looking for, share your desired specificity below, and let people try to recommend games that fit it.

A "house rule" is one that isn't explicitly in the game but that you choose to apply nonetheless. The question can apply to either videogames or tabletop games.

What's the rule/ruleset?
How does it affect your enjoyment of the game?

GMs: do you have any gaps in the worldbuilding of your setting that you're looking for help filling? Post them here!

In case it wasn't already clear, I need help as well. My setting is a near-future hybrid of Shadowrun and Cyberpunk, in 5e. There are two major gaps. First, in my setting North America has fractured into a handful of nations - but the middle part split into a radioactive wasteland and a loose coalition of city states. What locations might be concealed in the wasteland? (A fallout vault-like society living in the NORAD mountains of Colorado?) Which city states would have survived and what would their character be?

I also need ideas for more megacorporate factions.

Here is the work in progress for the setting, if you're interested.

Help me and I promise I'll help you!