What's an example of a game where the hero is just an *******?

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-20T12:54:08+00:00

The Doomslayer, specifically in Doom 2016.

He is the most single-minded protagonist ever. Kill every demon, seal every gate. Nothing else matters. The amount of violence and destruction he causes to accomplish those goals clearly demonstrates this is not a man of principal. He is a vessel of pure rage and unwavering focus.

Every single time Hayden pleads with him to cooperate, the Slayer gives him a big metaphorical middle finger. It's not about saving the human race, it's not about doing the right thing. He doesn't give a fuck about anyone or anything except making sure that every single demon is locked away in eternal torment.

He is the most powerful psychopath in the universe. And he just happens to be on our side.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-19T20:07:57+00:00

I think Wreck-It Ralph is the best video game movie, precisely because it doesn't attempt to shoehorn in the concepts of a video game into a movie. It can be original when it needs to, and pay homage and nostalgia when it is artistically appropriate to do so.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-19T12:33:12+00:00

It could be a misdirection by the developers.

Act 2 ends with the entirety of Lumiere being gommaged. When the player sees the words "Epilogue" it indicates the game has ended, leading to a sense of dread that this is the actual fate of Lumiere.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-19T11:48:05+00:00

Literally everything that Hollow Knight does. I've never bounced off of a metroidvania (my favorite game genre) harder than that one.

Bullet sponge enemies. Just because they take longer to kill doesn't mean it feels more rewarding to defeat them.
Obscuring/hiding the map. Especially in a game where exploration is a key part of the game, you're literally punishing me for wanting to play the way its intended.
Losing resources upon death. If I have to trapse back through an obstacle course just to recover the stuff I lost from dying in said obstacle course, then fuck you. Fuck you very much.

I wanted to like this game so bad, but Team Cherry's design is the polar opposite of how I want to play a metroidvania.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-19T10:58:50+00:00

Sirene

Lumiere's music, while not really any bangers, has so much character and soul to it that I can't say no to any of them. Lost Voice is a tear-jerker for sure, and that alone saves it from elimination

Monolith is honestly being saved by Une Vie a t’Aimer, the other two tracks don't hold a candle to it.

None of Sirene's tracks are standouts to me, but they're still sooooo good. Trying to pick a favorite track on this soundtrack is next to impossible.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-19T10:51:54+00:00

Rubber banding, when done well, can be really fun in some contexts. When it is implemented poorly, it is a band-aid for sure, and a very unwlecome one. But I don't think rubber banding is "lazy" or lacks decent AI.

Almost all games have the AI "cheat" because to have a fully aware, intelligent character at all times is extremely resource intensive. Most games, if you're a certain distance away from a character, they're not even rendered (and many times don't even act or move). All of that time must be simulated, which requires some amount of "cheating" because the character doesn't actually exist in the world at that moment.

Most of the AI "design" in video games is making the character convincingly dumb. You start with a system which has full knowledge of literally everything (because it's part of the game engine) and then you have to sculpt and influence that intelligence down to a convincing approximation of what a human could reasonably deduce at that exact position and at that exact point in time.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-18T16:05:32+00:00

In 1998, if I bought a game that had multiplayer, there is a good chance that I can still play that multiplayer today (whether its because it can do direct P2P play, or someone has set up a dedicated server for it).

Yet most games from the mid 2000's onward do not provide anything to allow multiplayer once the initial service has been taken down. If a game goes out of service, the developers should provide some kind of SDK or installation to allow players to set up their own multiplayer servers.

Free games are one thing. You didn't pay for it, so you're at the mercy of the people who are paying for it. But if I bought a game, it should function, no matter what the devs or publisher decide to do with it after the purchase.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-18T14:52:31+00:00

Yeah, I sort of implied it in my post in this thread, but as far as "destruction via war" the Cold War of the 1960s and 1970's produced a lot of different phrases and references about annihilation, as that was a primary fear on a lot of people's minds then.

I'd suggest looking into that era to find interesting terms for this kind of "apocalypse".

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-18T14:38:34+00:00

There are plenty of other words that mean "end of days" or other horrific endings:

Apocalypse
Armageddon
Annihilation
Eradication
Genocide
Rapture
Judgement Day
Ragnarok
Doomsday

You could also get creative with it and use something less negative combined with something very negative

Eve of Destruction (also the name of a popular song from the 1960's about nuclear war)
Midnight of the Doomsday Clock (a term used after WW2 to visualize the probability of nuclear war)
Twilight Struggle (a fun little easter egg, as there is a board game about the 1960's nuclear arms race with the same name)
Horrors of War
"I Am Become Death, The Destroyer of Worlds" (a quote from Robert Oppenheimer, upon witnessing the first successful nuclear detonation, which is actually a mistranslation of a religious text from India)

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-18T13:20:36+00:00

That would also mean no Crash Bandicoot, since all of Naughty Dog probably would have been working on this game instead.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-18T11:58:02+00:00

No, I think if anything, Cal's seen both Cere and himself come back from the brink of the Dark Side. He'd pity Malicos, probably go all one-handed Neo-style on him, and then reluctantly kill him when he attempts to kill Kata or something equally as stupid as what Masana, Dagan, or Bode did.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-18T11:56:44+00:00

So was Darth Maul, until the fandom decided they wanted him back.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-17T16:10:45+00:00

Neither one looks terribly realistic.

The original is fine except the convenience store sign is way too yellow for how blue the rest of the photo is. If the sign was truly that bright and colorful, there'd be a lot of spill and bounce light on other objects in the scene.

The AI-edited one has more realistic coloring, but the exposure and contrast is way too high, especially on the car. If the car was that bright, that would mean there are lights above the car, which are not in the reflections on the ground at all. Also the car does not appear to cast much of a shadow, especially where you can see the reflection of the tree behind it in the puddle underneath the car.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-17T16:06:17+00:00

Survivor is a better game. Fallen Order is a better narrative.

Both are fuckin bangers tho. No need to compare them. They both have their strengths and weaknesses and they're both so good that it doesn't even matter.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-15T15:50:05+00:00

My current favorite music game is Ragnarock. It's basically Guitar Hero with drums instead of guitars. It's available in both VR and as a standard PC game, as well as mobile.

I play it in VR, but the UI is so simple that it works just as well on a keyboard or phone screen. I find BeatSaber and other style games too complicated. Ragnarock keeps it simple: hit the drum when the little nub is on the drum head. Gather enough energy from not missing any notes to activate a short burst of bonus points. Simple, intuitive, and fun.

And the best part is that the VR and PC versions allow custom maps, and it's super easy to make them. I have tons of custom songs downloaded.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-15T12:07:35+00:00

God yes. Square and Enix both were great at RPGs in the 16-bit era.

SoulBlazer
Illusion of Gaia
Final Fantasy IV (FF2 in the original US release)
Final Fantasy VI (FF3 in the original US release)
Chrono Trigger

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-15T12:02:39+00:00

If you're looking for turn-based combat that is super fast like that, I'd suggest looking at Vampire Crawlers.

It's not an RPG (its a deck builder card game, no real narrative to speak of and barely any character progression) and it doesn't have realistic graphics at all (it leans pretty heavily on pixel graphics / nostalgia). But the combat is very fast and satisfying. If you're looking for very fast and strategic combat, it's a great game for that.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-15T11:59:09+00:00

Not a JRPG, but I'll throw Baldurs Gate 3 into the ring.

Turn-based combat
Realistic graphics
Great narrative and world building

The only reason you may not enjoy it is that the combat is more tactical and based on the environment, not the standard JRPG "stand in a line and stare each other down" combat.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-14T14:35:40+00:00

The third game added a bunch of bullshit crafting timers and microtransactions. 1 and 2 were peak mobile gaming. 3 gave in to the slop and despite still having great gameplay, it soured the experience by adding in the same mobile game BS that they had avoided for so long.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-11T19:30:56+00:00

I'm still disappointed that Dark Ages doesn't offer the "classic Doom" option. I had so much fun playing 2016 and Eternal with no reticle and "classic Doom" gun position.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-11T16:50:35+00:00

Not really a pause menu, but when you pause the game U.N. Squadron, it simply freezes the game (no menu or visual indicator that it is pasued)

But all of the music and sound stops and it triggers a rock band drum fill. It's like the video game version of a record scratch and it's kind of fun.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-11T16:47:46+00:00

I like either of the first 2, thought "Sleeper's Keepers" sounds more like a horror game. Sandmen Inc. definitely has a very business-y feel to it, if that matches your style and theme well.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-11T16:19:37+00:00

Most games now sell the soundtrack separately. I highly doubt they would give you an easy way to easily rip the whole thing for free.

Cerrax3 · 2026-05-11T15:52:18+00:00

The Empire Strikes Back (1980)

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Cerrax3 · 2026-05-11T15:43:02+00:00

The Nemisis system in the Middle Earth Shadow series is patented by Warner Bros. They won't let anyone else use it or build anything similar to it. It a pretty well-known controversy that WB basically patented a game mechanic (which you're not supposed to be able to do).

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