Asklemmy

Dwarf fortress I was always into it conceptually and think that all the under the hood simulation stuff is rad as hell and its fascinating how emergent narrative arises from such complexity.

Also love kruggsmash's videos, the bastards a legend. He's what got me into it.

But pre steam release I just could not get into actually playing it. Even with tile sets and such. I tried, I really did. But the horrid UI and high amounts of game ending bugs were just too much.

The steam release was the only game I've truly been hyped for in my adult life. I was giddy like a kid and got it the SECOND it released, and finally fell in love with PLAYING the game and not just hearing about it. Its so fun building up a fortress and getting invested in your little dwarves well being, hidden surprises they put in to spice things up. Every month there's an update, even if is just a small peacemeal to let us know things are happening and adventure mode is coming along.

After playing for a while and learning enough to know how much you dont know, you can feel the limitless passion and raw intelligence that is the foundation for the insanely rich systems you work with. It feels like a living world in your computer. The closet thing to true technological magic I've ever had the pleasure of interacting with.

Pokémon Unite

I tried it early on but I felt it lacked the maturity and depth of playing a more serious and in-depth MOBA like League of Legends. I played a lot of Pokémon games throughout the years but it just paled compared to how fulfilling the long-form games and lore of Leagues went.

Turns out I’m a dad now and these shorter, punchier games are both perfect for me and somehow more fulfilling. On top of that they added complexity with Boost Medallions without breaking the game with them. It makes the setup more cerebral because you lose stats as well as gain.

The Witcher 2. I died so many goddamn times in the intro scene, rage quit, came back years later and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Etrian Odyssey

I tried the demo for the fourth one and just didn't really like or get it. A couple years later Atlus announced Persona Q (which has mostly the same gameplay as Etrian Odyssey) so, I decided to give the demo another try and it just clicked this time. I have no idea why I didn't like it the first time around.

Horizon Zero Dawn. The first time I played it I could not get into the tutorial, just felt so bland. Then years later I tried it again, pushed through the tutorial, and it's now my all time favorite video game series.

That would be OMORI, first and foremost.

Binding of Isaac

Watch Dogs 2

I'm currently playing through Shadowrun : Hong Kong and really enjoying it. I'm not sure why I bounced off the first time, I played and enjoyed Shadowrun: Dragonfall and Shadowrun Returns but Hong Kong just did not click with me the first two times I tried

Mass Effect. Played the first one and couldn't get off Eden Prime cause of the shitty starting rifle and the OG game's idea of weapon stability.

Played Mass Effect 2 years later and beat it in a week, just absolutely loved the whole thing. Went back and played the first one after that to get the whole story. Then waited for ME3 to come out.

I still hate the way weapons work in the original ME1 but I pushed through, not surprised it turned people off of the game though.

Thief: The Dark Project

My brother had acquired a pirated copy for me. But the videos and dialogues had been stripped out to save space. He was gushing about how your footsteps would make different sounds on different floor types, but I already knew that from Jedi Knight. So I really didn't get what the fuzz was about.

Don't know how much time later I got a full copy and completely fell in love. It's one of my all time favourite games. The atmosphere is the best. And the different footstep sounds actually serve a gameplay purpose.

Dota2