[DoctorEldritch]

Hello Legion Gamers!

Just about 2 weeks left before the 7th of December when The Game Awards 2023 will be hosted in Los Angeles where the best games of the year will be crowned! And it's been 2 weeks since the nominees were announced, too:

Lots of good choices this year, even if some of them are not for PC gamers yer (Spider-Man 2, I am talking about you). Have you voted yet and, if so, what were your picks? And if not, you can do so here!

But this is not all, Stem is holding an award ceremony, too! And to make things better, it let us gamers come up with our own nominees as opposed to The Game Awards where they were pre-selected by industry experts. So if you have any good game candidates for one of Steam's 11 categories, you can propose them here! Just need to be quick, the nominee submission closes on the 28th of November! Let us know what games you nominate, who knows, maybe someone here will vote for your choice when the time comes! 😉

And as a cherry on top of all this, Steam is also having an Autumn Sale also ending on the 28th of November, so there is still time to both choose some nominees and grab some discounts while it lasts! Maybe you'll see something you wanted for cheap? 😊

[DoctorEldritch]

Got a bit of a scoop today! While The Game Awards decided not to show what the leaderboard looks like right now, some crafty gamers managed to compile the leaders! Here they are:



Baldur's Gate 3 is in the strong lead, which is no surprise (though I have not played it yet). And it is nice to see Cyberpunk there, too, thank you @GoLLuM13 for reminding me about it. Who knows, it may get GOTY yet.

As for the Legend of Zelda, can't play that with just a PC 😭

All in all, impressive list, and there is still time to vote for your favorite candidate, too!

[GoLLuM13]

If anybody wants to vote >>here is the link<<

I picked my 10 favorites and obviously Hogwarts is among those 👀

[DoctorEldritch]

@GoLLuM13 Indeed, and if you want, you can also nominate some games on Steam for their own award, the link is in the main post or here.

With The Game Awards, we can only vote for candidates picked for us now, but Steam allows you to actually nominate games, too. But if you want to do it, then better be quick, today is the last day (and of sale, too!)!

[DoctorEldritch]

Originally Posted by GoLLuM13

I picked my 10 favorites and obviously Hogwarts is among those 👀

I liked Hogwarts, but still found it lacking, I think it needs more drama and depth. But that's me, ever the critic. Still, I wish Obsidian had a go at it. Maybe someday. I guess I'd still vote for it, but I think they want to make it a trilogy anyway, so here is hoping that by the end of it Hogwarts evolve into something great, the same way Batman did in the Arkham trilogy.

What other games did you pick?

[GoLLuM13]

@DoctorEldritch at first I only picked Hogwarts 👀 but after several minutes I realized I could pick up to ten so I added (in disorder) :

1. Alan Wake 2
2. Baldur's Gate 3
3. Cyberpunk 2077
4. Final Fantasy XVI
5. Genshin Impact
6. Resident Evil 4
7. Starfield
8. Street Fighter 6
9. Super Mario Bros Wonder

[DoctorEldritch]

@GoLLuM13 That is a nice list. Though, in my case, I have to admit that I have not played that many of these games yet, in fact, Hogwarts is the only one on the list that I played so far. With all the waiting for GOTYs and Ultimates and discounts and all.

So out of those, Hogwarts aside, I'd rather make a list of games I would play next, out of order. It would look somewhat like yours, but different.:

1. Alan Wake 2 (need to play the first one and Control before this)
2. Baldur's Gate 3 (Seems like it will have GOTY, so maybe after that is out)
3. Cyberpunk 2077 (that will be the first one I'll play)
4. Marvel's Spider-Man 2 (when it is ported to PC)
5. Hi-fi Rush (heard many good things about it, need to find the time)
6. Lies of P (same as Hi-Fi Rush)
7. Starfield (after a couple of years when all DLCs are out and Ultimate)
8. Star Wars Jedi: Survivor (it is mixed on Steam, but I want to play it for story continuity at some point)

So a bit like yours, but not quite. Though I am looking at 2 of the other ones on your list: Final Fantasy XVI and Genshin Impact. With Final Fantasy, I still need to find a good entry point into the franchise, never played any of FF games before, and there are different contradicting guides on the web and YouTube advising on which game you should start with, so I keep putting off this behemoth.

And Genshin Impact is interesting and some of my friends advised it to me before, but no offline mode and microtransactions put me off. Is it really good enough to soldier through those?

As for the others, this is where our interests do not align: Resident Evil 4 is too scary, Street Fighter 6 is too fighter, and Super Mario Bros Wonder is not on PC.

[GoLLuM13]

For Final Fantasy you can play whichever you want they're not related, except for some rare games, where it's a follow up.
As for Genshin Impact, I'm playing it for the "chill" side, and I don't intend to pay anything even if it's tempting, you can play and do most of the things if not all without paying, it will take more time though.
Resident Evil 4 isn't that scary at all, especially if you compare it to the others before it (Resident 0 to 3 + Code Veronica) or those the newer ones (RE 7 + 8) I'll be honest I couldn't play RE 7 because it really was scary 😂

[DoctorEldritch]

@GoLLuM13 Then for Final Fantasy what would be the good one to start, as in, the one that could showcase all that this series has to offer? While looking into it, I came to a conclusion that, not taking into account the school of thought that says you need to play in chronological order starting with 1, there are 3 main suggestions: either to start with Final Fantasy VII Remake, or with Final Fantasy X, or with Final Fantasy XV. I've been pondering those for a while now when I had some time. Maybe you can tip the scale for me towards one of them?

With Genshin Impact I dunno, it's just, that the very fact that microtransactions are there rubs me off the wrong way. It could be due to the way I game, though: this is why I always wait for all DLCs, I do not like the idea of needing to pay for something extra or new content in the middle of the game. This annoyed me to no end in Yakuza Like a Dragon, and it's only being the fan of the series that kept me going:

Shame on you SEGA. 😠

So yeah, I guess a game that has microtransactions built into it the way Genshin Impact has, where it is not even a DLC but a continuous offer of purchases, well... I guess it would tick me off so much the game will end up being anything but "chill" 😅

As for Resident Evil 4, I am honestly not sure, everyone has their own definition of scary. I can say that I do not "enjoy" being scared, as in, do not watch scary movies or go to "Scary House" attractions when a carnival is in town or the like. That being said, while we did talk about scary games back in October, I'd say, if Resident Evil 4 is on the same level as, say, Alan Wake 1, then I could give it a go, but if it is more than that, then I'll be better off. Besides, there is also the question of continuity: if I play RE4, I will be compelled to play the rest of them which, honestly, may not be too healthy for my impressionable mind.

[GoLLuM13]

@DoctorEldritch I can't be of good advice for the FF series, I'm not a huge fan, and those I like are those big fans don't really like, because I prefer the new Action-RPG and haven't like the turn-based gameplay, so "naturally" I like the 15 and the 7 Remake (haven't tried the 16 but I know I'll like it too) it will also depend on the fact that if you like pixelated games or not. If you do, you can play the compilations of the FF series from the first to the latest, if not, you can start with a game of the "current era" like FF 15 that has all the DLCs, because FF7 Remake while it's a wonderful game, it is just a part of the original game.

With Genshin there is alway a new content, so you won't be "satisfied" with a game that has everything, there are temporary events that you can have once in a lifetime, characters that appears for 40 days and you try to get them by farming the in-game currency (or paying with real money it's up to you) it's the gashapon style (or lootbox). Personally, I just play to chill, if I have the character I wanted, it's awesome if not, one day maybe but I won't pay anything, that's for sure.

Resident Evil 4, is the game where Capcom started to go into the action direction with the series, I don't remember any scary moment, stressful yes, but not "scary", but I'm less sensitive than many too, some got scared by seeing corpses, blood and all, I'm not. But you have a point, playing Resident Evil 4 will give you this impression you missed something and want to check previous games to understand the lore and who's who, the what, where and why ... etc because there are mentions about previous things, while you will understand the whole story of the game, you'll still want to know more about those things (I try not to spoil 😜)