Games you're thankful for (Thanksgiving thread - No negativity allowed)

I’m thankful for Star Wars Galaxies, MOO2, the Civ games, Everquest, World of Warcraft, Imperialism 2, XCom, System Shock, Hearthstone, War in the Pacific Admirals’ Edition, and many other great games. Also for Steam and Qt3.

Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends to the south.

Thankful for Pong which started my journey from Pong->ColecoVision->Commodore64->AtariST->PC gaming journey.

That’s a great one I should have thought of TundraToad - that’s exactly where my hobby/addiction started!

I agree, however just switch Atari 2600 for ColecoVision and you have my journey to pc gaming.

My mom had a ColecoVision and I played it some just before my I started the job that would have for the next 31 years. Loved Tron, one person could control movement and the other could control shooting. It was the best coop I ever played.

Big thanks to my friend Joe who introduced my to his VIC 20 playing Shamus. Oh so many eons ago. You are the cause of all of this.

I’m thankful for DERPSPACE. The latest developer update is nothing short of mind-blowing.

I am thankful for portable game.

I haven’t had much time to game at home due to a very busy schedule - most nights by the time I get home I have just enough energy and time to surf the web for a little or watch an episode of a short Netflix show. So the 3DS or Vita travel with me in my bag and I get to get at least an hour of gaming time on my commute to and from work and occasionally on my lunch hour. Especially thankful for the Vita where I can carry with me a large PS1, PSP and Vita collection of games.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

This year I’m especially grateful for the games I finished in the last year:

Skyforce Anniversary/Skyforce Reloaded - Two awesome games that made me appreciate a whole new genre of games! That’s really rare you guys. Games like this don’t come around very often that make me change my mind on a genre like this.

Overload - I’m not done with it yet, but Descent 4 is here! Woohooooo!

Gears of War: Ultimate Edition - I haven’t quite finished it yet, but this campaign turned out to have a lot more variety and changes in gamplay than I was expecting. And it was freaking hard even on Normal difficulty. I enjoyed it.

Forza Horizon 4 - I just loved my time in virtual England/Scotland. I’ll gladly dive into this again in 2019 when I renew my Game Pass.

Bioshock Infinite - Admittedly, it’s hard to find something positive to say about Infinite. But going with the spirit of this thread, I have to find something. I will say that once I changed the difficulty to easy and walked through the rest of the game, it made me realize that’s how I should have been playing the whole time. So some of the friction between me and the game was my own fault for playing on Hard most of the way.

Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - I’m not quite done with it yet, but I played this for most of 2018. It’s a really long game, but it’s really crunchy and satisfying, both from a gameplay perspective and story perspective. I talked about this in the stealth game thread, but this game is a great example of how do to stealth right. By alternating stealth and action, you don’t get tired of sneaking around, and if you do get discovered, you still have a chance and kicking so much ass that it’s amazing.

The Swapper - I loved it, beginning to end. I wish I could use the flashy thingie from Men in Black on myself so that I could play it again as if for the first time. Really clever puzzles, and wrapped in an a really atmospheric setting.

ABZU - This was a really nice zen experience, just exploring underwater and chilling.

Aaero - This game was fabulous! It really made me appreciate all these Electronic Dance Music tunes while playing along with the music. I loved it.

Grim Dawn - Ashes of Malmouth - This provided so many hours of entertainment this year. I just love this game already, but this was one of the best most substantive expansions ever.

Firewatch - I played through it, beginning to end, and it stuck with me even now. It’s a very different kind of story that stirred mixed feelings within me. And so it was really effective.

Mirror’s Edge Catalyst - I really enjoyed this game once I got in the groove of things, and started competing and trying to get 3 star times on some of the runs. I still liked the original better, but the game that’s here is also really enjoyable.

Cuphead - I didn’t get very far, because I suck. But hey, I still have a great time beating my head against this thing. Hard games are really fun in their own way.

Diablo III: Reaper of Souls - So I finally returned to this game and ran through it in Seasons for the first time this year, with multiple characters, and I had a great time. It’s a completely different type of ARPG compared to Path of Exile or Grim Dawn, but it’s also really fun in its own way.

I’m thankful for a lot of games this year - in my book, it’s been a great year gaming-wise - but the one I’m the most thankful for is, without a doubt…

Yakuza 0.

I’m grateful for Thea, 7 Days to Die, Through the Ages, Caracassone the Official Board Game, Monster Hunter World, Divinity 2, Don’t Starve Together and Ticket to Ride and too many board games to count because these are all the games that bring my friends and family together to play with me.

I’m so glad someone else enjoys Thea that much. Certainly a game I’m thankful for as well.

Ooooh, thanks for the reminder about board games!

I played a board game for the first time since I left Seattle in 2006/2007. The family all gathered around and played Settlers of Catan yesterday after our Thanksgiving meal, with the 5-6 player expansion so that 6 of us could play. It’s the first time I’ve played with that expansion. It’s well thought out to convert a 4 player game into a 6 player game. We really enjoyed ourselves.

I’m particularly thankful for the wide variety of deck builder games that are such fun for my regular play group. Star Realms, Hero Realms, Legendary, Lord of the Rings, Attack on Titan, Sacred Grove, and many more. Those kind of games just work so well with a group of 5 to 7, where many kinds of card and board games just don’t work well above 4 players.

I didn’t get as much gaming time this year as I would have liked, but my trusty portables ensured I got some gaming done, either on the subway ride to work or in the comfort of my bed before sleepy time.

So thank you 3DS for the fun times with Dragon Quest VIII and 7th Dragon III Code: VFD (loved this JRPG) and thank you Vita for being the TRUE PlayStation Mini with your absurd amount of PSOne games, on top of your own respectable library AND access to a good chunk of PSP titles.

Oh, and thanks to Microsoft and their wonderful efforts with making the ultimate Backward Compatible home console. Great to know that I can always replay one of my old 360 faves or pick up something I’m missing in my library (now including original XBOX titles!). I would buy the PS4 right now if it offered backward compatibility with the PS3 and PS2.

Nice thread!

So this year I am thankful for:

(1) DCS World and all its modules - my biggest joy this year once I got my lazy ass going as it takes WORK. But it’s worth it - this is a childhood dream come true and in VR it’s a true pleasure. It makes me think back to blocky pixels, low res, and how much imagination I needed to have on my old ZX spectrum when playing Microprose F-15. Now I look behind me and I see the sunset glinting off my beautiful Hornet, hills and valleys unwinding below, and it feels like I am THERE. With the F-14 on preorder and still so much to learn, I am excited about simming more than I have been in years. What a pity a HOTAS and Oculus don’t pack up small - I will have to leave DCS behind over the Xmas vac.

(2) XCOM Enemy Unknown on my iPad. It’s a comforting pair of slippers I always come back to. When my 15 month old boy is asleep beside me, I slip on my AirPods and gun down some Chrysalids. Now if only they would bring XCOM 2 to the new iPad. I would be in heaven.

(3) Subnautica - an unexpected delight that I spent many hours in this year. Another triumph of VR. Can’t wait to get a load of the expansion.

(4) Crusader Kings 2 - by any rational measure this game shouldn’t exist. Another one I keep coming back to again and again. A true gem of gaming and absolutely unique. As long as they make good DLC I will buy it.

(5) Rimworld - another gem like CK2. Emergent anarchy!

(6) An honorable mention for Ass Creed Origins. First Ass Creed I played and while fundamentally its an empty shell with repetitive mechanics it’s a fun empty shell with repetitive mechanics for reasons I cannot quite put my finger on. Maybe it’s because I have a little boy and the story talks about a man avenging his son. Cheesy, but that made me sympathetic to the protagonist and eager to deliver meaty vengeance to all responsible. This means I will HAVE to pick up AC Odyssey ;-)

(7) No man’s sky. I was deeply disappointed when I first bought this title but I feel Hello Games have redeemed themselves. It’s still not quite what I hoped for, but I admire their response to the backlash - classy, and both a labour of love and a penance of sorts. This could become a very fine game indeed.

I am thankful for having been gaming when Microprose was putting out new games like MoO and MoM.

I’m grateful for indie game developers who were inspired by those early games that I loved and are producing games that run on my anemic laptop.

I’m thankful for my daughter teaching me how to play Minecraft with her, even though I’m all “Hey look, I crafted a stick!” as she rides circles around me in her fancy armors on her mount. It’s the only computer game we play together and she is so patient with me and I give her loads of amusement.

And I’m thankful for PBEM with other nerdyman wargamers from all over the world and getting to know a bit about them and where they live.

Your post made me curious, and I just grabbed the game, as it seems to be available for 2 bucks today. Really nifty interface, great first contact!

Thanks to you, I noticed this game in the Steam feed, and bought it at the Halloween sale. I’m looking forward to spending some quality time with it.

Thanks to Persona 5 for giving me an escape from my unbearable work last year, and for infecting all my friends with the earworm that is Beneath The Mask: https://youtu.be/gFFOXwniVKw

Thanks to NieR Automata for helping me pass the time during the layoff, also last year, and for the best Best Ending to a game I’ve ever experienced. (Played it on my PS4. I have to do it again on the PC later.)

Thanks to Soul Calibur VI for showing me that I still got my Taki mashing skillz.

Thanks to @rei for selling me his GTX980ti, so I don’t have to shop for another few years.

Thanks to you all at QT3, who are still here being nice while I drift in and out.

Finally, thanks to Nightdive Studios for System Shock Enhanced Edition. Why play the homages, when I can play the real thing again?!?!

Thanks for everyone at Qt3 for all the valuable opinions and insights they share here, and for answering my questions, even though I rarely have something useful to contribute back. Also thanks for tolerating my tendency to drift towards the negative. My mind has a hard time letting go of the things that bother me.

As far as games…
Thank you to Slay the Spire for giving me such an engaging game to play on our laptop since I can’t play anything very demanding. I’m looking forward to fireing up the PC in about a month and a half.

Thank you to Civ IV for still managing to give me more entertainment after all these years. I must have over 2000 hours when it was released. I haven’t even played with mods. I’ve meant to many times and just never have.

Thank you Wolfenstein The New Colossus for giving me a great story. There were some completely off the wall crazy stuff in there and I loved every minute of it.

You’re very welcome, @KaoFloppy!