Games

Cassette beasts is a great pokemon like with some fun twists and great sounds track

Let's go with some good non-AAA games that were not sequels and never got one either.

Single player:

• Baba is you
• Brothers
• Mark of the Ninja
• SUPERHOT
• Vanquish

Better in co-op:

• Astroneer
• Deep Rock Galactic
• Nine Parchments
• Outward
• Renegade Ops

Thumper is the best rhythm game I've ever played, and it was made by two ex-harmonix employees who were disappointed by the direction of rock band and similar titles. It throws away all the wish fulfillment and commercial stuff and the result is amazing.

~~Crack~~Factorio

Management games like Software INC, Startup Company, Big Ambitions, Sim Airport and SimCasino.

Unless it's something that you are a super uber fan, avoid buying a game before it comes out.

It saves a lot of heartaches and headaches.

Plus, in today's world... why pre order? It's not like a game will run out of copies...

Although it looks like you're mainly focusing on single player games, Titanfall 2 is a great alternative to Call of Duty. Its movement is insane, it's fanbase isn't toxic and it's actually fun.

Outer wilds, tunic, a short hike, fez,

Do you have steam? Click on a tag (preferably a more descriptive one, but multiple can be selected on the next screen) of a game you enjoy, but think the soul has been lost from, sort by user review, find something you haven't heard of before, enjoy the next entry in your preferred genre!

Alternatively go to the games store screen, at the bottom, after "more from this developer" is "users who enjoyed this game also enjoy"

Steam makes it very easy to expand your library, like it's their business or something.

Edit to add Missing the point of let's get some community involvement in here rather than turning to our benevolent monopolistic overlords.

If you want something that feels like Pokémon but was created by someone who isn't just trying to shit out a new game every year, check out Casette Beasts!

I guess I may suggest my all time favourite RPG. It's Disco Elysium. A brilliantly written and crafted gem. You will find an amazing storyline, crazy dialogues and choices, psychedelic visuals. Such a gem must not be forgotten. What a pity the company almost dissolved after the release and the original authors won't have a part in the sequel.

I feel like the Sonic franchise's last great game was Adventure 2. There've been a couple good ones since then, but not great.

Anyone got a good replacement?

The answer to your question is the indie market. Lots of unique ideas, ton of games that are a product of passion and not profit chasing.

My personal recommendation because I don't see it mentioned a lot is Pathologic 2. Product of decades of work and one of my favorite RPGs where every single choice you make does matter. It's a pretty bleak and heavy game that has about a 30 hour runtime and it's really stressful so it's not for everyone but I personally loved it.

I haven't played the beta yet but I'm hoping that The Finals, which is made by ex-Dice devs, will be a good alternative to Battlefield and COD. I just miss destructible environments so badly. Bad Company 2 was so so good back in the day.

Any game from Supergiant I would recommend in a heart beat.

If you like smash brothers, rivals of aether is really fun and has support for steam workshop.

My previous comment seemed to miss the point of this thread.

In the spirit of this thread I would love to find an alternative to "Settlers 7, a new kingdom". The simplified combat, the urgency of the tech tree, the all or nothing of trade routes, and the really deep 4x in an RTS elements were friggin amazing, but Ubisoft drm really kept me away from trying any other entries to the series, and they haven't indicated anything new coming out. So where can I guy go to get his settlers fix? If you haven't played settlers 7, and are ignorant of why ubisoft is synonymous with the devil, give it a shot, it's a wonderfully fun experience that I haven't found replicated anywhere else.

For ARPGs if you feel burnt by Diablo IV, I can recommend Path of Exile. Arguably the king of the genre today.

Others mentioned Grim Dawn, which has a bit slower gameplay, but a good choice nonetheless.

If you're looking for indie ARPG, then there's Chronicon. Nice little game that I really want to go back to again.

If you want to play animal crossing, but only have a PC: try Dinkum. Same gameplay loop, but with a few minor twists and turns. And the setting is Australia. Hence you ride your mu around town, shearing the wool of your pleeps and milking your vombats. Ofcourse you need to defend them from crocos and fire spitting bush devils. But anything you kill can be thrown on the BBQ. And to get rich, you start a fairy bread empire. Exporting millions worth of sugary goodness.

Path of exile is a arpg made by a small studio

Stop playing AAA games!

Pretty random list off the top of my head:

Hyperlight Drifter, Sayonara Wild Hearts, Ruiner, Grim Dawn, Rime

Maybe I am just getting old but I've started to spend a lot more time with older games and titles that may be rough around the edges but have some unique ideas and actually take some risks with their game mechanics.

One of these games is Outward which has a lot of walking (quick travel is almost non existent) and serviceable combat system that leaves a lot to be desired. However both of these do give the game some flavor that is missing from many modern games now combine this with interesting "death" mechanic where instead of respawning you're thrown in to random scenarios related to the area where you died. Another mechanic is backpack which you'll need to carry any meaningful amount of items and which will limit your movement in battle if you do not drop it with all your items. The way palyer needs to sacrifice health to receive mana is also interesting and how different each mastery tree is is also nice. I do have to admit that I'd like the game a lot more without time limits on quests as they stress really me out.

Another one is Incredible adventures of Van Helsing which is diablo-style ARPG that doesn't take itself too seriously. It took me awhile to understand the games mechanics which lead to bad time initially but once I understood the power-up system, focus on flat elemental damage bonuses instead of percentage based ones and how silly some skills where with power-up the game got me hooked. The dialogue and story is also pretty good for ARPG and fully voice acted.

Third one is Wurm: Unlimited which is basically special version of MMORPG Wurm: Online where players can host their own servers with their own tweaks and mods. While Wurm Online is substriction based mmorpg with very very slow progression most Wurm Unlimited servers are free to play and have quadruple experience modifiers making the game a lot more enjoyable. The game is basically medival fantasy sandbox where players can terraform the world, build all sorts of structures, hunt, farm and even do pvp on pvp servers. While a lot of the game is just pressing buttons and waiting for action timers to pass there's a lot of depth in the game and it can get suprisingly immersive. I do however recommend joining to one of the long lasting servers like Sklotopolis instead of playing the game solo on self-hosted server as the experience is a lot better with small community even if you prefer to do things solo as the world will feel a lot more interactive and a lot less empty.

I've been enjoying peglin quite a bit.

Due process is a fun alternative to rainbow six siege. Unlike siege you actually have to coordinate and play tactically but unfortunately it’s pretty much dead at this point.

I don't know what these would really be alternatives to, but I impatiently await every new game from Daniel Mullins Games. Inscryption was a fantastic deck builder and I more than got my monies worth out of it. I also follow Stranga Games pretty closely. Very small developer makes story focused retro style adventure games. No combat at all generally. So if you like a casual experience and that style of game, it might be something to look into.

Currently looking for one to total war after all the revelations.

books

The solution is slow depletion of title power in order to drive competition. Basically, encourage each others and yourself to explore other games that aim for the same goals as the original property, ideally expanded with some vision of innovation.

For Pokémon, players could likely try out Casette Beasts. For Silent Hill, there are other survival horror properties examining psychological properties of their heroes, like Cry of Fear and The Park.

Beyond All Reason is by far the best current Traditional TA like RTS and it does this being free and open source too!