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PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1903 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for January 16, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Video game thread

I haven't played anything in weeks. Been too busy with a responsible adult mode/productivity streak. Haven't been getting enough R&R and became a bit worn down. Please tempt me into some fun gaming.

What's your preferred genre(s)? What's your tolerances for the newest "hope you spent $600 on a GPU recently" and for the oldest "just enough pixels to jog your imagination" games? How many hours of play time are you looking to spend?

My favorite games of all time are probably Portal, Deus Ex, and Star Control 2. Honorable mentions to Outer Wilds, Civilization (especially 4 and 5), Skyrim, Kerbal Space Program, (Telltale's) The Walking Dead, and Baldur's Gate.

Oh, but for

I was hoping for subjective descriptions of fun, interesting gaming sessions people have had recently.

I think I'm stuck. "Fun, interesting" and "recently" make Outer Wilds a shoo-in (I literally bought a Steam Deck dock and bluetooth controller solely so that when I recommended it to my kids I could watch them play on the big screen), but no self-respecting Outer Wilds player would describe Outer Wilds to someone else! Half the fun is encountering everything for the first time and trying to figure out how it all works and what it's all about.

I probably like a good RPG more than anything! Some of my favorite games ever are KOTOR, Deus Ex, Morrowind, Mass Effect, the Persona games. I also like the odd strategy game like Civ V, but that's sometimes too demanding on the highest difficulties for a wearied brain.

I have the highest tolerance for compute hungry games (rtx 5090). And a low tolerance for low budget/pixel art stuff, although I've liked a few of them too. I'm a pretty demanding and jaded bastard who gets bored of anything resembling mediocrity or mere timesinks. I'd rather read a book or something if I'm not feeling 'engaged' or 'immersed' by the game.

How many hours: 100 per game at the most, preferably much less. I've got savegames a few dozen hours into BG3, KCD2, Elden Ring, Oblivion Remastered, etc but find it hard to get back into something I've put down. Got some weird aversion going on these days vs sinking into a game world when I 'could' be doing adult stuff instead, but of course not giving oneself enough rest and fun does not lead to anything good.

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