What should I play next?

M76

[H]F Junkie
Joined
Jun 12, 2012
Messages
14,006
Help me decide what game from my backlog to play next. I need convincing arguments, tell me why should I play that particular game, not just a title.

Here is the list to choose from:

Amnesia A Machine for Pigs
Amnesia The Dark Descent
Assassin's Creed III remastered
Bulletstorm
Call of Duty Black Ops III
Crysis 3
Dead Space
Doom 2016 (I warn you, this would be a hard sell, I've already tried it once and it didn't invite me back)
Far Cry 4
Fear 2 (I played the first one when it was new, but remember f all about it, can I still play this, or do I need to get up to speed on the first again?)
Fear 3 (Good luck convincing me to play the third before the second one)
Firefall (I have absolutely no clue what this game is and what it does in my steam library)
Freespace 2 (Is this even a single player game? IDK how and why I own this)
Frontlines Fuel of War
Gone Home
Life is Strange
Mirror's Edge
Mirror's Edge Catalyst
Rage
Rage 2
Shadowrun Dragonfall Director's Cut
Thief Deadly Shadows
Watch Dogs
Watch Dogs 2

This is not my entire backlog, only the ones I'm unsure about.
 
I would vote for either Watch Dogs 2 or Rage 2

Firefall no longer is supported not for like 5 years not sure if you can still roam around it was a MMO.
 
Dead Space - it's a fantastic horror game, and you seem to like games with good story, which this one had a pretty good story, atmosphere, and is worth the play through. It's dark, has very intense moments, bad ass weapons, bad ass creatures, and, you're in freaking space!

OR

Fear 2 - you don't HAVE to replay the first one, it is a direct continuation of the first one, but you should still grasp the story without replaying it. It's still a good story, as was the first, great gameplay, and you can pilot mechs, it's fun.

Fear 3 - meh, very meh compared to the first two. The first two were full of story and atmosphere, part 3 is very... action heavy and light on story.

Do NOT play Gone Home, it's a stupid SJW walking simulator. I only played it because it was a free PS Plus game, and, it's practically pointless. Don't waste your time!
 
Honestly out of the backlog Deadspace is the only one I would consider playing again. Otherwise I would let the backlog die. Here are my, maybe worthwhile if you are real bored, mentions;

Bulletstorm- campaign can be completed in under 8 hours if you want something quick.

Deadspace- Cool enemies and killing mechanics. Hope you enjoy a game based entirely around fetch quests.

Farcry 4- Lots of people love it and the graphics are less dated than many on your list. Not my favorite but worth trying if you already own it.

Fear- The second game picks up pretty much at or right before the end of the first game IIRC. You should probably play the original first if you care about the story. (and if you don't care about the story they may not be worth playing. I'm not sure how the shooter mechanics or graphics hold up. )

Gone Home and Life is Strange - Artsy Story clickers pretty much. If you are into that they are worth playing. Gone Home is real short and not very interesting.

Watchdogs 1-2 - Just a GTA style game with more tech. I would play cyberpunk, sleeping dogs, or the Saints Row games over these.
 
  • Like
Reactions: T4rd
like this
Freespace 2 is one of the all time great single player arcade space sims. There's FS Open at hard light which you may want to use: https://www.hard-light.net/
Firefall is a dead MMO, I don't even think the servers are running.
 
Deadspace for sure. I recently started replaying it as well. Deadspace 2 is even better and should be the follow up to that. I have DS 3 and could never get past the first couple hours of it since they ruined the atmosphere of the game and turned it into another action game.

Make damn sure you play with good headphones or speakers and preferably in a dark room.

I think FEAR is worth replaying as well before replaying FEAR 2. I played them all back to back about 10 years ago exactly now and don't remember much about them other than generally having a good time with them. 3 was def a bit more action oriented as well and was consolized unfortunately.
 
Last edited:
Crysis 3 - A Solid shooter, but nothing spectacular. Is fairly short, you can finish it in around 8-9 hours. Straight forward and well done for the most part. Assuming you played Crysis 1/2, story wise it tries to blend 1/2 together after the retcon of 2.

Far Cry 4 - Best of the bunch. A very solid shooter. Map design is pretty good with a lot of vertical. I liked the setting (fictional Nepal/similar region). There are two different paths to take in some missions. Never went back to replay those missions which require a restart. Story is okay, but clever in some bits.

Mirror's Edge - Interesting first person parkour game with some shooting. Nice setting and theme, moderate story.

Mirror's Edge Catalyst - Reboot. Better running/jumping, interesting combat. No shooting. Story was okay. I liked the city design and graphics were great.

Watch Dogs - GTA with a dark theme. If you liked the hacking in Cyberpunk, that is essentially the whole game here. Otherwise, standard GTA clone.

Watch Dogs 2 - Same as the first, except tongue in cheek geek theme.

Rage - Odd texture pop in. Story ends abruptly. Driving was tacked on. Story itself was "meh". Shooting was okay. Some nice post apocalyptic dead cities, but it seemed like it was very rushed. Clearly the game was rushed. Many people hated it, I thought it was average at best.

Rage 2 - Better than the first, IMO. Generic story. Fun shooting/combat. Tacked on driving. Open world felt kind of pointless, but enough side activities that are short and optional to play around with the shooting mechanics. Finding new weapons was a bit odd, didn't come naturally. Consult with a guide to get them early on.

FEAR 2 - Fun, more scary than the 1st to me.

FEAR 3 - Not scary at all, but a good action shooter. Odd story twist. Designed around co-op but perfectly playable offline.


I'd go with FC4, ME Catalyst & Crysis 3 first.
 
  • Like
Reactions: M76
like this
Mirror's Edge is one of my top 10 games of all time. The art direction was bold and still holds up, great parkour gameplay. It's pretty short, maybe like 4 or 5 hours if you don't die a lot.

FEAR is also in my top 10. The first game is classic, and worth playing again. The sequels were just okay, nothing amazing but still fun.

I really loved RAGE 2. The first one is kind of janky, and doesn't really have anything to do with the sequel, so you are okay just jumping to 2. Really solid first person shooting with lots of upgrades.

Shadowrun Dragonfall was the best out of the new games. Solid turn-based tactics, and great writing/story. If you're interested in cyberpunk this will be lots of fun.
 
Thief Deadly Shadows <- Take it for a spin. There are some interesting mods out for it.
 
I just finished playing through the Thief trilogy and I thought Deadly Shadows was the weakest of the three.

It is but it's a decent game in its own right and it's something different vs most of what's on his list. I figured I'd chime in with something completely different. ;)
 
I've tried Mirror's Edge, definitely not my game. It seemed like a good game at first, but it quickly devolved into frustration. You never have time to properly get your bearings just run like a lunatic hoping you are going the right way. The red highlights always show up too late, when you are literally a feet away from them. And it takes way too many attempts sometimes to make some completely straightforward segments. Because for some reason despite doing evertyhing the same way, some jumps just fail. For example in one segment there was a jump that I made effortlessly on the first try then failed 5 consequtive times after that. I was just talking about it in another forum how Immersion breaking I find games where the gameplay is trial and error based. Well this qualifies fully.

And there is no option to turn off depth of field and motion blur which isn't a good thing either. So on to the next.
 
I've tried Mirror's Edge, definitely not my game. It seemed like a good game at first, but it quickly devolved into frustration. You never have time to properly get your bearings just run like a lunatic hoping you are going the right way. The red highlights always show up too late, when you are literally a feet away from them. And it takes way too many attempts sometimes to make some completely straightforward segments. Because for some reason despite doing evertyhing the same way, some jumps just fail. For example in one segment there was a jump that I made effortlessly on the first try then failed 5 consequtive times after that. I was just talking about it in another forum how Immersion breaking I find games where the gameplay is trial and error based. Well this qualifies fully.

And there is no option to turn off depth of field and motion blur which isn't a good thing either. So on to the next.

Catalyst is a bit better in that regard. Did you play the original?
 
Catalyst is a bit better in that regard. Did you play the original?
Yes the original. Graphics holds up surprisingly well, for a 12 year old game, too bad about the frustrating gameplay. If checkpoints were at least closer together I might be able to stick it out, but I nearly broke my keyboard in the first hour.
 
Mirror's Edge is not that hard. But there are a few tricky jumps.

Grabbing pipes is kind of janky. And there are a few jumps in the water processing plant that are really difficult. But overall it's a pretty easy game.

Yes, you are kind of running like a lunatic, but that is the whole point of the game.
 
Yes, you are kind of running like a lunatic, but that is the whole point of the game.
More often than not I end up in a dead end or falling off into nothingness because I took a wrong turn somewhere. That's what I mean by trial and error. Sometimes I fluke it and go the right way but it does not feel like an achievement, it's pure luck.

I was always bad at guessing the mind of level designers. And this game is all about that.
 
Amnesia: The Dark Descent
Really a walking simulator, but there is platforming and puzzle solving. There are also a lot of endings in the game determined by how much you're exploring and how closely you're paying attention to the things you find. I guess it's more like a classic adventure game in that sense. I will admit that the insanity mechanic can get annoying sometimes as its initial novelty starts to wear off. The story and pacing is excellent, and the game still looks beautiful.

Dead Space
Wonderful horror game that still holds up today in nearly every department. Unfortunately your mouse speed is tied to the game's framerate on PC, but it is still much better to play with a mouse than a controller. There is also negative acceleration when you ADS, but it actually works in your favor due to the mechanic of needing to blow off limbs. Great story and pacing, wonderful voice acting, fun to play, and still looks amazing. I was thinking about playing through this again, myself.

I would recommend Mirror's Edge, but you've already said you think it's a game of "trial and error," so I don't think I could convince you otherwise. I will say that the environment, even as the red mechanic gets less and less used as you progress, is pretty obvious on where you need to go. The game doesn't really punish you for stopping and figuring out where you need to go next, either, except in a few firefights where you're overwhelmingly outnumbered.

Firefall was a free-to-play massive online shooter that was made by Red 5 Studios. The servers were shut down in 2017, so you can't play it anymore.
Mirror's Edge is not that hard. But there are a few tricky jumps.

Grabbing pipes is kind of janky. And there are a few jumps in the water processing plant that are really difficult. But overall it's a pretty easy game.

Yes, you are kind of running like a lunatic, but that is the whole point of the game.
It was extremely frustrating on console because for some reason they didn't do circular calculation on joystick input, meaning you didn't get full run speed unless you were pushing the stick up perfectly straight.
 
I'm going to reiterate Dead Space, especially with this game being announced, the team consists of mostly people who worked on the original Dead Space.


Yes! I am very excited to see where this goes.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Q-BZ
like this
I'm going to reiterate Dead Space, especially with this game being announced, the team consists of mostly people who worked on the original Dead Space.



Damn, nice. I wasn't aware of this.
 
Yes the original. Graphics holds up surprisingly well, for a 12 year old game, too bad about the frustrating gameplay. If checkpoints were at least closer together I might be able to stick it out, but I nearly broke my keyboard in the first hour.

That is a bit of a problem. Some parts were a bit tricky. Catalyst is better in that regard, but still similar. If I recall checkpoints were slightly better. But chances are you might not like it.

I'll go against the people saying Dead Space. It was horrible as a game but had great atmosphere. DS2 was a better game but not as scary. DS3 wasn't scary at all, but they finally figured out how to make it play properly. Problem is it became too actiony. The series just got progressively worse at horror while getting better at bug fixing, mouse control, crashing, ect.
 
The game doesn't really punish you for stopping and figuring out where you need to go next, either, except in a few firefights where you're overwhelmingly outnumbered.
I was constantly being chased by swat police and helicopters, if I took one wrong step I died in a few seconds due to gunfire, there was zero time to figure out what to do or where to go next. And the hint button is not very helpful because it will just turn you in the direction of your final objective even if you have to go the complete other direction first to reach it.
 
Dead Space
Wonderful horror game that still holds up today in nearly every department. Unfortunately your mouse speed is tied to the game's framerate on PC, but it is still much better to play with a mouse than a controller. There is also negative acceleration when you ADS, but it actually works in your favor due to the mechanic of needing to blow off limbs. Great story and pacing, wonderful voice acting, fun to play, and still looks amazing. I was thinking about playing through this again, myself.
I've started Dead Space, it's not bad, but you're right the controls are awful. There seems to be a lag in mouse movement, and it's sluggish even after maxing out mouse speed in the menu. This would be a very easy game if the controls were normal. And the melee is atrocious too. When you are stomping the ground everywhere except hitting your target. Same for the flailing attack, it's painfully slow and often miss like 90% shots in XCOM. I haven't given up on it yet, but it's on thin ice.
 
I've started Dead Space, it's not bad, but you're right the controls are awful. There seems to be a lag in mouse movement, and it's sluggish even after maxing out mouse speed in the menu. This would be a very easy game if the controls were normal. And the melee is atrocious too. When you are stomping the ground everywhere except hitting your target. Same for the flailing attack, it's painfully slow and often miss like 90% shots in XCOM. I haven't given up on it yet, but it's on thin ice.
I played DS originally on PC with kb&m, then again on 360 soon after. So this last time I played again on PC and personally preferred the controller for the game over mouse because of the awkward kb&m support like Armenius pointed out. I never had any issues using melee either, at least using controller maybe because orienting yourself felt more natural with the controller. Also, a key gameplay mechanic I found is to use stasis every chance you get and then melee/curb stomp the shit out of everything to save ammo (which is pretty plentiful as well for the most part), since stasis is pretty plentiful everywhere either on the wall stations or through enemy loot drops.
 
I've started Dead Space, it's not bad, but you're right the controls are awful. There seems to be a lag in mouse movement, and it's sluggish even after maxing out mouse speed in the menu. This would be a very easy game if the controls were normal. And the melee is atrocious too. When you are stomping the ground everywhere except hitting your target. Same for the flailing attack, it's painfully slow and often miss like 90% shots in XCOM. I haven't given up on it yet, but it's on thin ice.
If you lock the game to 60 FPS the mouse control is better.
 
I've started Dead Space, it's not bad, but you're right the controls are awful. There seems to be a lag in mouse movement, and it's sluggish even after maxing out mouse speed in the menu. This would be a very easy game if the controls were normal. And the melee is atrocious too. When you are stomping the ground everywhere except hitting your target. Same for the flailing attack, it's painfully slow and often miss like 90% shots in XCOM. I haven't given up on it yet, but it's on thin ice.

I remember reading about a fix a while back, a quick google search brings this up: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/840-dead-space-mouse-fix/
Not sure if that's the one I read about, but might be worth a shot!
 
Dead Space This one needs no introduction. Great game. Great atmosphere. Turn the lights off and put on some good headphones.
Far Cry 4 I love all the Far Cry games. I like the gameplay, guns, shooting, mechanics, and this one is one of my favorites due to the location.
Fear 2 You don't need to replay the first to enjoy the second. They touch on everything you need to know with this one.
Fear 3 Feel free to skip this altogether
Mirror's Edge One of my favorite games. It is a piece of art. The world design, music, and the gameplay are all just fascinating. HIGHLY suggest playing this as soon as possible.
Mirror's Edge Catalyst I played maybe an hour into this before I realized how much they shit on the uniqueness of the original so I don't feel strongly about this
Rage The intro FMV is very memorable to me and insanely well done. That's all I remember.
Rage 2 I likely tried to play this while not in the best mood to play a game like this, however I didn't play much of it. The gunplay is amazing though and that's typical of id games. I will revisit this game at some point.
Watch Dogs This is my favorite of this series. I like the serious tone to it (Watchdogs 2 is too jokey and too... "Millennial" if that makes sense) and the gameplay is good. I started playing Watchdogs Legion recently and like that quite a bit as well, but 2 just didn't grab me like the first one did)
I deleted all the ones I haven't played. Not trying to convince you what to play and in what order, but rather just giving some brief impressions of my time with the above.
 
Last edited:
I was constantly being chased by swat police and helicopters, if I took one wrong step I died in a few seconds due to gunfire, there was zero time to figure out what to do or where to go next. And the hint button is not very helpful because it will just turn you in the direction of your final objective even if you have to go the complete other direction first to reach it.
I'm with you. I wanted to like the game, everyone said it was great. Unfortunately I found it unplayable unless I wanted to bash my head into a brick wall and play sections over, and over, and over, and over.
 
  • Like
Reactions: M76
like this
I remember reading about a fix a while back, a quick google search brings this up: https://community.pcgamingwiki.com/files/file/840-dead-space-mouse-fix/
Not sure if that's the one I read about, but might be worth a shot!
This works really well, too, if you don't want to lock the framerate down. I played the game before this was available and V-Sync off locked to 60 FPS was perfectly playable. Try doing the ADS cannon segment with a controller. It took me 30-40 times to get the achievement for that one on Xbox 360. I ended with the minimum required hull integrity for that achievement after just one time with a mouse on the PC version.
 
I've started Dead Space, it's not bad, but you're right the controls are awful. There seems to be a lag in mouse movement, and it's sluggish even after maxing out mouse speed in the menu. This would be a very easy game if the controls were normal. And the melee is atrocious too. When you are stomping the ground everywhere except hitting your target. Same for the flailing attack, it's painfully slow and often miss like 90% shots in XCOM. I haven't given up on it yet, but it's on thin ice.

Mouse control was horrific in DS, still bad in DS2. They only got it right in DS3.
 
I always stick with controllers when it comes to 3rd person games even on PC. Not sure why but it just feels right to me.
Same here unless the game is centered around shooting/aiming at fast moving targets, which games like Dead Space really aren't with how the enemies are generally slow moving and it's just as easy to target limbs on a controller as it is a mouse to me. I find general character movement/orientation and inventory/UI navigation to be much more comfortable on a controller as well. I think that may be a contributing factor to OP missing melee targets so much, since I vaguely remember having that issue as well until I switched back to controller for the game.
 
I play everything with a controller, outside of some old games like FEAR which don't support it.
 
Controllers are anathema to me. In 15 years at least I went from completely hopeless to managing to finish some games that I really really wanted to play. But only on easiest or story mode. And it was still harder for me, than any game ever was with moues+kb, on the hardest difficulty.
 
Back
Top