Need a new game suggestion, worn out on Bethesda

[shortylickens]

Have been bouncing back and forth between Skyrim & New Vegas, usually one character and about a hundred hours of playtime each.
Just recently realized something, New Vegas seems VERY small and empty by comparison, without nearly enough shit to do.

Granted, you're in a post apocalyptic desert so the empty part kinda makes sense. But if they were gonna do that, the game world should have been much larger. Skyrim feels ginormous by comparison but also rich and busy.

Unfortunately other "open" world games such as Dead Island fail in a big way to deliver what I'm needing. Borderlands was the same way, not even close to what I want. Neither Far Cry 2 or 3 impressed me either. They have the same basic problem, the world actually feels quite constricted and limited, and you have to do an assload of work just to be able to pick up one more weapon, or craft one more item. The missions feel incredibly generic and get boring quickly, but you cant progress too far in the campaign without improving yourself, slowly.
Actually, all of that could be said Dead Island and Borderlands as well.

The other problem is I dont like MMO's. So I think I may have reached the limit of my available games to play.

Any ideas?

 

[blake0812]

The Last Remnant. It's a very good game.

 

[xantub]

you have the Gothics, maybe Risen

 

[jdwright]

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

This is a very large world. Story by a R.A. Salvatore and Todd McFarlane on the Art. Action packed fighting mechanics and just an all-around beautiful environment.

I may have to reinstall.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

You say you're worn out on Bethesda but I didn't see you mention Morrowind. I am replaying the vanilla atm myself. I have to say it plays almost flawlessly on the PC (I originally bought it for my Xbox back in the day when it released, before my kids were born....lol wtf I'm getting old.) and it is far deeper and more rewarding than Skyrim in my humble opinion. They've removed so many gameplay elements since Morrowind that Skyrim almost felt like Zelda to me a bit. I still love it, but I don't find myself drawn into the world or the story nearly as much.

Anyhow, I know it is an old game but there are tons of mods to modernize it, but I would recommend playing it through one time without game changers. Just figured I would throw this one out there.

 

[xantub]

You say you're worn out on Bethesda but I didn't see you mention Morrowind. I am replaying the vanilla atm myself. I have to say it plays almost flawlessly on the PC (I originally bought it for my Xbox back in the day when it released, before my kids were born....lol wtf I'm getting old.) and it is far deeper and more rewarding than Skyrim in my humble opinion. They've removed so many gameplay elements since Morrowind that Skyrim almost felt like Zelda to me a bit. I still love it, but I don't find myself drawn into the world or the story nearly as much.

Anyhow, I know it is an old game but there are tons of mods to modernize it, but I would recommend playing it through one time without game changers. Just figured I would throw this one out there.

There is one element they removed in Skyrim that completely changed my liking of TES games. I loved all TES games before Skyrim, in big part because of the spellcrafting system. Skyrim removed that, and I couldn't get to like it after two separate attempts.

 

[Rakehellion]

Dark Souls.

 

[Markbnj]

There is one element they removed in Skyrim that completely changed my liking of TES games. I loved all TES games before Skyrim, in big part because of the spellcrafting system. Skyrim removed that, and I couldn't get to like it after two separate attempts.

Spellcrafting, flying, underwater exploration and combat, truly seamless interior/exterior areas... there was a lot in Morrowind that I wish they hadn't tossed out.

 

[DaveSimmons]

You can play the Star Wars MMO as a single player game, with 2 major story lines (Empire and Republic) plus class-specific stories for Jedi, Sith, etc. (8 class stories). It's not quite a single-player game, but close. It's not open-world though.

You've already played these?

Saints Row 3-4
Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines
Star Wars KOTOR 1-2
Mass Effect 1-2
Dragon Age 1
Fallout 1-2-Tactics

 

[Bateluer]

Have you tried modding Skyrim or New Vegas? There are some pretty significant and awesome content mods for each. Skyrim has Wyrmstooth and Falskaar, two very large regions with full quest lines and developed cities, characters, etc.

 

[werepossum]

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games hold up pretty well with the Complete and Realistic Weapons mods.

 

[blake0812]

The S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games hold up pretty well with the Complete and Realistic Weapons mods.

I felt that the changes from Complete were too big, so I went in vanilla, after that I tried it and I couldn't get into it.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Spellcrafting, flying, underwater exploration and combat, truly seamless interior/exterior areas... there was a lot in Morrowind that I wish they hadn't tossed out.

You and a lot of other people feel that way. I am actually playing Morrowind right now, not Skyrim or Oblivion even though I own all of them.

 

[Red Hawk]

The Last Remnant. It's a very good game.

Horrible PC port though. They didn't even change the menus to replace the Xbox control icons with mouse/keyboard icons! There also isn't a native vsync option and forcing vsync through the AMD control panel doesn't seem to working, leading to obnoxious screen tearing. I bought the game as part of Steam's Square Enix sale last week and this crap is actively keeping me from getting into the game.

 

[Majcric]

Darksiders 2, it's dirt cheap and very unique. It's my sleeper pick that many folks will miss.

 

[norseamd]

arcanum

isometric 2d but i think the whole map is open world

 

[Agent11]

Spellcrafting, flying, underwater exploration and combat, truly seamless interior/exterior areas... there was a lot in Morrowind that I wish they hadn't tossed out.

Graphics quality won out over immersion.

 

[blastingcap]

Darksiders 2, it's dirt cheap and very unique. It's my sleeper pick that many folks will miss.

If it's anything like Darksiders I, I don't think it's really in the same kind of vein as Skyrim/FO:NV. Darksiders is more of a linear, hybrid hack-and-slash and puzzle-solver a la Portal (in fact Darksiders I even had a portal-style gun, and it's in Darksiders II as well). It's also dumbed-down in the sense that almost all boss fights are like so: dodge their attacks, then run and jump and hit the boss enemy in the one vulnerable area, repeat three times to defeat. You may have to shove a railcar into their belly first, or open a portal, or whatever, but it's all very ridiculous. I HATE games with bosses that are 99% invincible so you have to hit them in that 1% window of opportunity in their Achilles Heel, multiple times. It's not realistic. It's console kiddie crap imho. It didn't stop me from sorta liking Darksiders anyway, but I really despite that kind of console-game garbage, and I refused to buy Darksiders II because I knew it would be more of the same.

OP, you may enjoy Witcher/Witcher II which are somewhat more linear than Bethesda games, but semi-open-world. Witcher III is supposedly open-world like Skyrim but has been delayed to 2015.

If you can tolerate even more linearity than that, try Deus Ex: Human Revolution which is basically linear but with many side missions you can take along the way.

 

[Fenixgoon]

The Last Remnant. It's a very good game.

last remnant is EXCELLENT. like any JRPG, there's a ton of depth (complexity, perhaps some unwarranted) to the combat system, but it's very fun.

Horrible PC port though. They didn't even change the menus to replace the Xbox control icons with mouse/keyboard icons! There also isn't a native vsync option and forcing vsync through the AMD control panel doesn't seem to working, leading to obnoxious screen tearing. I bought the game as part of Steam's Square Enix sale last week and this crap is actively keeping me from getting into the game.

won't deny this. also, for something that uses the unreal3 engine, it runs like crap.

 

[blake0812]

Horrible PC port though. They didn't even change the menus to replace the Xbox control icons with mouse/keyboard icons! There also isn't a native vsync option and forcing vsync through the AMD control panel doesn't seem to working, leading to obnoxious screen tearing. I bought the game as part of Steam's Square Enix sale last week and this crap is actively keeping me from getting into the game.

>xbox control Icons
What? Yes they did there's an option for it in the main settings menu.

>screen tearing
Force 60fps via settings or download Rivatuner and use the D3Doverrider tool to force it.

 

[Pr0d1gy]

Graphics quality won out over immersion.

False. Blatantly false.

The gaming industry pushes this narrative because it is cheaper to pay graphic artists to make something look pretty than it is to find truly talented programmers/designers to form a truly innovative/immersive world.

 

[Revolution 11]

A big part of this is that good world design is really hard and good storytelling is probably even harder. There are very few people who can do these areas justice and their wages reflect this.

I would not say that it is cheaper to prioritize graphics but rather easier. You don't have to scrounge around to find the truly genius writers and designers, just get average artists and programmers and give them enough budget/time.

Also, during trailers, E3, and other marketing stunts, it is impossible to show good design and story but graphics are always noticed.

Easy Graphics + High Time and Expense for Story/Design + Drop-Dead Easy Marketing for Graphics + Simple games have wider audience = Dumber Games for Everyone

 

[gothamhunter]

Just Cause 2 aside from all those mentioned.

 

[shortylickens]

Alright guys, got some decent suggestions here. Gonna go with a few of them.

Tanks so much

 

[zinfamous]

I agree that Star Wars ToR is a good option for getting though the main storyline, and you can pretty much ignore all of the MMO parts to do that; plus it's more or less free.

I'd recommend going Sith, though--The good side stories are terribad, especially the majority of Jedi stuff. Now, if you don't do that flashpoints as you go along the story (team based missions only), you will miss a lot of the KoTOR storyline, which pretty much plays as a secondary story throughout--it is pretty good, though, and those missions can be fun.

Of course for these, you run into the problem of being the noob in a random group of people that are just trying to do their dailies and want you to not suck in their attempt to rush through everything 5 minutes at a time.