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Friday Fun Thread for June 28, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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The first Amnesia is on sale for €4. Excellent Lovecraftian survival horror.

The first Dishonored + all the DLC for €5. If you liked Thief or Bioshock you'll almost certainly like this. I've only played the base game.

Far Cry 3 for €3. My favourite in the series, very satisfying stealth and gunplay (fair warning: I recently tried replaying it and it crashed so frequently that I gave up. Apparently it's an issue with Windows 11).

Inside and Limbo for less than €3. Everyone's heard of Limbo (that really stylish 2D black-and-white platformer where you control a little boy in a forest) and it's as good as everyone says it is, but I think Inside is even better.

Mirror's Edge for €5. Very satisfying first-person parkour platforming, stylish visuals, amazing soundtrack (just skip all the cutscenes, the story is trash).

Psychonauts for €2.50. About as close to a game I'd call perfect as any game I've played, and one of the few games which made me actually laugh out loud several times without once resorting to puerile toilet humour.

Manhunt for €3.50. In my opinion a massively underrated stealth/survival horror game from the people behind Grand Theft Auto. A game that makes you feel dirty playing it (in a good way) and has some interestingly meta things going on long before that was cool (and in a subtle enough way that doesn't draw attention to itself).

Valkyria Chronicles for €5. After the X-COM reboot, the best turn-based tactics game I've played. Attempts to tell a sanitised PG-13 World War Two science fantasy AU without downplaying the horror and tragedy of that conflict, and largely succeeds.

X-COM 2 for €2.50. Currently playing through it for the first time, having logged more hours in Enemy Unknown than I care to mention. Mechanically speaking it's a little cluttered compared to its more streamlined predecessor, and the new "concealment" mechanic feels awfully half-baked. But I've already sunk 40 hours into it, which I'm sure speaks for itself - given how addictive the first one was, the sequel would have to be a lot worse for me not to spend a comparable amount of time playing it.

Alien Isolation for a tenner. If you liked the original Alien film (and, crucially, thought Aliens kind of missed the point of what made the original work) you'll probably like this. Tense, atmospheric, terrifying, with visuals which capture the vibe of the original film flawlessly.

Others have mentioned Arkham Knight, which I haven't played. Asylum and City, both of which I've played several times and loved, are going for €4 each.

You can buy the entire F.E.A.R. franchise for €5.50 (weirdly, the only individual entries you can buy are 2 and 3). The only one I've played is the first, which had some of the most satisfying FPS gunplay and sound design I've played. The horror elements didn't really work for me, in stark contrast to a game by the same studio which came out within a year, Condemned Criminal Origins, which is in the top ten most terrifying games I've ever played and which is going for €2.50.

Ghostrunner for €9. Played it a few months ago, possibly the single hardest game I've ever played to completion. Nails that hypnotic Hotline Miami effect (aided by the amazing synthwave soundtrack), but this one's a first-person parkour platformer where you hack up enemies with a katana.

Outlast and its DLC for under a fiver. Excellent first-person survival horror in the vein of Amnesia.

SOMA for under €6. From the people who made Amnesia, but far superior to it. It's much less overtly scary: the tone is more of Philip K. Dick-esque dread and existential despair. The ending really got under my skin.

Catherine Classic for €5. Played it for the first time a few months ago and loved it, it's a combination of puzzle-platformer and visual novel/dating sim. Addictive, stylish and bonkers.

Detention for under €4. A side-scrolling horror visual novel set in Taiwan in the 1960s may not sound like your thing - it certainly didn't sound like mine. I found it so absorbing I played through the whole thing in one sitting anyway.

Resident Evil 7 for €8. A steal. A radical departure from previous Resident Evils, and yet one that works remarkably well.

The Shrouded Isle for €2. A weird strategy game in which you play as the leader of a Wicker Man-esque cult on a secluded island. Every quarter, you must sacrifice a member of the cult to appease the gods, while carefully balancing relationships and trust among the various houses. Weird and cool.

SUPERHOT for €7. FPS based around an ingenious and deceptively simple gameplay gimmick. Remember earlier when I said that Manhunt's story has some cool meta elements which are subtle enough not to draw attention to themselves? SUPERHOT is the opposite of that: it's one of those indie games where the story is super meta and seems to expect a big pat on the back for doing something meta, all of which is awfully grating. Would've been improved by cutting the story entirely or replacing it with a dumb excuse plot. But the gameplay and visuals are great.