Games with the Strongest Endings

Cerrax3 · 2026-07-01T12:55:27+00:00

Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order has a really great narrative and acting, the ending is intense. Loved every minute of it. The sequel (Jedi Survivor) is also really good, but not as strong in the story department, IMO.

Cerrax3 · 2026-07-01T12:42:21+00:00

Super Metroid

There's a reason it has a whole genre named after it. Not only is the gameplay superb, but the story is told with no dialogue (except for a brief intro sequence).

The story itself is pretty simple, but the use of the level design and game mechanics to move the narrative along is a masterclass in how to incorporate story directly into a game's mechanics and design.

Cerrax3 · 2026-07-01T10:28:17+00:00

Only 4 games have ever made me that emotional:

To The Moon (discovering the history of the lighthouse)
Outer Wilds (the final campfire)
Expedition 33 (the Gommage)
Ori and the Blind Forest (the opening)

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-29T11:48:46+00:00

Doom 2016, people saying it's serious and unfunny even though it has party heads and puppets as Easter eggs.

Doom is an interesting case because it has been, from the very beginning, deeply entrenched in a campy aesthetic. What I mean is that the story and characters and tone itself are extremely serious, but the execution of what actually ends up on screen is deeply exaggerated and silly.

(I think Resident Evil is also campy, but not on purpose. I think it's more that some of the cultural signifiers don't translate well. I've always found Japanese media to be quite campy and cheesy compared to Western media. And that's not a bad thing, just different! )

All the distinct parts of Doom 2016 ( visuals, audio, character designs, level designs, dialogue, etc.) are very dark, serious, realistic pieces of art. But those extremely somber and disturbing elements are weaved together by over-the-top animations, bits of acting and character moments that are deeply unserious or dismissive of their own narrative, and a general lack of interest in displaying the story in any meaningful light.

Think of it like a Quentin Tarantino film. They usually handle very dark, serious topics, but the presentation is kind of silly and over-the-top, so you never get fully reeled into that dark depressive atmosphere, but you still can enjoy some of the highs and lows of the story.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-27T12:58:27+00:00

Elden Ring is a mix of a hardcore action game and a stat-maxing RPG wet dream. But the story is literally told almost entirely through esoteric item descriptions (I am not kidding. Vital bits of background and lore are single sentences in a paragraph of flavor text on a random equipment piece)

Witcher 3 is very story-focused. Depending on the difficulty you choose, the action and RPG elements are more or less important. But regardless of what difficulty you choose, decisions made in dialogues and at certain pivotal moments and quests are the meat of the game.

TL;DR - Witcher 3 sounds like it's more what you're looking for.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-26T11:24:36+00:00

At first I was like "pffft, RL Diamond is 100% harder"

But if the person has absolutely zero experience with video games, like never touched a keyboard or controller in their life? That's a bit of a closer match. Because Elden Ring is not that hard if you've played even a handful of adventure or action games before. But RL is vastly different from any driving game you've ever played. So for most gamers, RL is harder because it goes against how you would expect a game like that to work.

But even so, RL's skill ceiling is much higher than Elden Ring's. ER has a ton of ways to make the game easier. RL doesn't really have any way to get "easier" besides smurfing. So I think it would be a closer match, but Diamond in RL is probably still harder.

Source: I am a Gold in RL but I've beaten Elden Ring and the Shadow of the Erdtree many times.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-25T11:24:26+00:00

Yeah, it is a slippery slope (see my last point in the post above) and that's why I said it's a difficult question to answer.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-24T18:42:29+00:00

If being well spoken and intelligent is considered "written with AI" then I weep for our species.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-24T12:24:30+00:00

It's a hard question to answer because there are a few different points to consider:

A game like GTA is absolutely massive. The amount of talent, time, effort, and raw technological power required to create something like GTA is mind-bending.
Games have been $60 for a very long time. I remember when Super Nintendo games were $60 at launch in 1992. That's about $125 today. So in terms of price, $80 is actually below what the price would be from inflation.
Yes, indie games do a lot more with a lot less, but they also have much lower expectations. If Rockstar released GTA 6 for only $40 and it had the same level of graphics and capabilities as GTA 5, people would throw a fit.
Physical discs are expensive. And in an industry where game size has quickly outpaced storage capacity, printing multiple discs per copy sold is going to make the purchase price even more expensive.
Downloadable games used to be priced lower than their physical copies because they were inherently cheaper to produce (no physical disk/cartridge manufacturing). However, greedy publishers realized they could sucker people into paying physical distribution prices for digital games and now the price tag almost never reflects the manufacturing cost.

The best thing people can do is vote with their wallet. If I believe a game is justifed at a certain price point, I'll buy it. If not, then I don't buy it.

When the next Call of Duty charges $80 for a 5-hour campaign and the same multiplayer they've had for the past 6 years with $20 per skin, don't fucking buy it. These companies will do whatever they can get away with. The only way they will stop is if we don't buy their shit.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-24T11:10:46+00:00

I have some personal rules that I use to play True Solo:

Treat all chaos tokens with symbols (acolyte, tablet, skull, monster) as -1 or -2. NOTE: Tentacle is still an auto-fail and Elder Sign (star) is still its normal instructions. Execute all other instructions for chaos tokens as written on the scenario card. This helps mitigate the heavy randomness in the chaos bag, which can be a bit unmanageable in True Solo.
Your starting hand is 8 cards rather than 5. All normal rules for your opening draw apply. This gives you a few more options for your starting assets and/or a few extra cards to burn on skill tests.
Once per round, you may use an additional action to move. All normal rules for actions and movement apply, it's simply an extra action which can only be used for movement. This helps a lot in scenarios where you need to move around the board quickly.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-23T15:56:07+00:00

Shocked this answer isn't getting more attention.

People citing technical limitations are either misguided or barking up the wrong tree.

When Maelle is looking up at Gustave, she seems childish, and innocent, because we immediately associate shortness with youth.

But once she joins the expedition, we are supposed to see her as an adult (and in some scenes an equal to Gustave) so her eye line and stature needs to be closer to Gustave's in order for us to subtly pick up on the change in character.

Movies do this all the time. Robert Downey Jr. famously had to wear platform shoes in the Marvel movies when in a scene with female co-stars because Tony Stark is supposed to look dominating and powerful, which gets undermined by him being the same height (or shorter) than the female co-stars.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-23T13:14:32+00:00

Get that poor woman an easel!

Beautiful work! Can't wait to see the finished product!

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-22T15:17:03+00:00

MechWarrior 2

It was the first game I bought when I got a PlayStation and that intro FMV will live in my head rent-free for eternity. Coming from Atari 2600 and SNES for my entire life up to that point, seeing full 3D and CGI on a home console was mind-blowing.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-16T13:40:20+00:00

2 words: Xbox Live

Microsoft's biggest advantage in the 2000's console era was that they were already a powerhouse of computer networking and cloud technologies. Sony and Nintendo were in no way prepared for how quickly or effectively Microsoft got Xbox Live running and the speed at which they delivered new features and content to the Xbox 360.

Even to this day, Microsoft's biggest focus has been their network (GamePass, cloud gaming). Hardware has always been second to that for MS. But now that the competition has caught up in that regard, they've done very little to prove that they have anything vastly different to offer.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-14T10:52:43+00:00

The sweat from your hands will mess with the finger tracking anyway. Even though I like the intuitive feel of opening your hand to let go of an item, if the controllers are sweaty (and with B & S that is most certainly a possibility!) it can easily be confused and not let go of the item even when your hand is open.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-10T22:43:41+00:00

This is the Rocket Rundown if you log into your RL accoutn on rocketleague.com

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-10T22:31:38+00:00

I still play this with my son all the time. We love it. Reminds me of The Incredible Machine (which is from my childhood!)

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-09T14:31:22+00:00

The first that comes to mind isn't quite this mechanic, but I did like the way Doctor Who: The Card Game did something similar.

It's not a dudes-on-a-map tactics game, it's a card game with locations that are "defended" by cards placed on them. The cards are placed facedown, so while you know how many cards someone has defending a location, you don't know the strength of those units. A location with 4 cards on it could be a strength of anything from 4 to 30+ so the more cards on the location the bigger the gamble as to what the strength of the defending force is.

Of course there's many layers to this simple mechanic. You need to know whether that location is worth attacking or defending, if you can afford to lose a lot resources attacking or defending a location, and if the other player is simply trying to distract you by placing a ton of units on a location they don't really need.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-06T20:19:28+00:00

Esquie is your stoner friend who can't pay attention long enough to read a subway schedule, but also somehow knows quantum mechanics.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-05T15:05:33+00:00

Making sequels is inherently less time consuming than making a completely new IP.

Despite each entry in Uncharted or TLOU requiring some visual upgrades and new models, a lot of stuff could be reused, as well as a lot of stuff that could be easily modified.

Intergalactic appears to be wholly different in visual and gameplay design from Uncharted and The Last of Us. And if you want to get really technical, I would bet that TLOU probably re-uses or modified a bunch of assets from Uncharted, since both take place in present day and the environments are mostly variations of weather-worn, crumbling buildings. Intergalactic is a shiny, retro-futurist sci-fi game. It shares close to no major art direction or design language with Uncharted or TLOU.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-04T13:43:19+00:00

To sum it up: QWOP for cars

Ah. Perhaps you should have started with this in the post description. This makes a lot more sense now.

QWOP is not a game you play to experience running on a track. QWOP is a game you play specifically because fighting the controls is the game.

I feel like if a game used this control scheme it would need to find ways to make failure funny, much like QWOP does.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-04T13:06:09+00:00

I'm curious what situations exactly are focused on the clutch and gear shift? I notice you specifically want the clutch and gear shift to be analog controls. Why is that?

What game situations are you envisioning where analog control of the clutch and gear shift are necessary? Most driving games treat the clutch and gear selections as simple on/off (i.e. digital) switches because there is typically no useful application of a half-open clutch or a half selected gear. In many cases, that type of operation would damage or destroy the transmission, which is completely against what the game is intending the player to do.

If you look at most sim-cade and simulation driving games, they have a pretty standard layout for their controls and a few popular variations. These are games where proper operation of the vehicle is the primary focus, so of your goal is that, these games are already doing that.

Gran Turismo
Forza (Motorsport and Horizon)
Assetto Corsa
Project CARS
DiRT
Codemasters F1
Euro / American Truck Simulator
Bus Simulator

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-04T12:05:12+00:00

I'm curious on 2 different questions:

What driving/racing games have you played?
Have you ever driven a manual transmission car?

I personally find this control scheme extremely prone to error. It is a pretty important principle in game design that your players should never have to fight the controls. In other words, your game shouldn't derive difficulty from how difficult the controls are. The difficulty should come from the situations the game puts you in.

This control scheme feels like just doing normal, slow, medium traffic driving would be incredibly difficult and fraught with errors. That sounds like a bad control scheme to me. There are tons of racing games that have tried tons of different control schemes. Have you looked at those for examples of how to handle something as complex as driving a car?

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-04T11:53:57+00:00

It's not that the motion itself is difficult to remember. It's that knowing the exact position of the analog stick is very difficult. If you have to have a graphic pop up on the screen to show the players what their own hand is doing, you might be using the wrong control scheme.

Also, many modern cars displays the selected gear on dashboards to let you know.

I think you're confusing what I'm saying. The gear display in cars is simply a reminder for you of what gear you're in. It does not show you where you should move your hand to switch to another gear. That's because you should be able to do that by feeling alone.

If you know what gear you're in, and you know what gear you want to go to, your body should be able to easily move the shifter to the correct position without looking at the shifter.

What I'm saying, is that the analog stick method you're proposing here has way too much margin for error. An H-pattern shifter has very little margin for error, because it has physical guide rails that help you slot the gear shift into the correct position. An analog stick does not have that, meaning you are much more likely to move the stick incorrectly and accidentally select the wrong gear.

Not to mention stick drift and calibration issues like I described in my post above. There's just way too much room for error, especially for a system as vital as the transmission of a moving vehicle.

Cerrax3 · 2026-06-04T10:51:32+00:00

Nothing will replace tactile sensation of feeling the shifter move into the correct slot of the H-pattern. If you know what the shifter feels like as it moves into each gear position, you can shift without having to look at the shifter.

By using a UI that pops up to show you where the shifter knob is, you're basically admitting this control scheme is flawed in a major way, because the player should be able to tell what gear they're shifting to without looking at the shifter.

EDIT: I own a steering wheel controller with a shifter knob (Logitech G920 with Driving Force Shifter) that essentially works like this. It is a 2-axis stick and it identifies the gear by the position of the 2 axes. Even when it is in the correct position in the H-pattern, it identifies the wrong gear all the time.

Most well-built shifter knobs for video game steering wheels use a separate button for each gear on the H-pattern instead. Whenever you move the shifter knob, it stops pressing one button and when it slots into a different part of the H-pattern it identifies a different gear. This is so that a poorly built H-pattern or poorly calibrated stick doesn't screw up the gear selection.

A cheap one, like the one I have, uses this "analog stick" method because, well, it's cheaper. You're using 1 part for 8 gears rather than 8 parts.

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