I'll recommend Escape From Duckov, a parody of sweaty extraction shooters like Tarkov. It avoids the worst parts of that genre by virtue of one thing: it's entirely single-player. There's no camping, no trolling, no meta to follow, just you going out on expeditions to explore the world, bring back as much loot as you can carry, upgrade your character and equipment, expand your base, and unlock new areas. The only two friction points are your limited carrying capacity (you'll be limited by your slots at first, then weight once you have a decent backpack) and that dying twice in a row costs you everything you had equipped - the latter not really being a problem because the game keeps a backup of your last ten saves and lets you jump back in time directly from the load menu, so if losing all the equipment you spent several hours upgrading is a deal-breaker you can simply elect to undo it when it happens.

The looting is the real standout here. Nearly every item you find is used for at least one quest or upgrade, and you continually unlock new places to spend them as you progress. All that food you've been hoarding comes in handy after you unlock a gym that uses them to permanently increase your base stats, for example. You'll also sometimes be forced to make hard choices - say you found an expansion crate that's used for upgrading the warehouse capacity back at base; unfortunately these crates are obscenely heavy, so if you want to haul it back you'll need to drop most of what you're carrying or be limited to slowly dodge-rolling your way to the nearest extraction point.

It's such an addicting experience, and I'm saying that as someone who normally loathes loot-driven games. If anyone ends up playing, I can't recommend these three mods enough. The first shows how many of an item you already have in its mouseover popup, which saves you an endless amount of warehouse wrangling due to running out of space, The second shows how much an item would sell for, making prioritizing loot much less stressful when you're low on inventory slots. The third is a simple luxury mod that adds colored backgrounds to items based on loot rarity.

1w ago

'Throwback to McCarthyism': Trump DOJ Moves to Treat Leftist Dissent as Criminal | Common Dreams

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Quetzalcutlass @lemmy.world 1w ago

I can't even imagine a political environment where that line works. Times really were different back then.

1w ago

China Has Reportedly Built Its First EUV Machine Prototype, Marking a Semiconductor Breakthrough the U.S. Has Feared All Along

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Quetzalcutlass @lemmy.world 1w ago

Taiwan being invaded would make the current component shortages look like nothing in comparison. TSMC fabricates the vast majority of high-end chips used by basically every computer and smartphone. They have a two-thirds market share while the next biggest player, Samsung, has around 10%, and Intel barely registers. If you want high-yield nanometer-scale precision manufacturing, TSMC is practically your only real choice.

1w ago

rtfm

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Quetzalcutlass @lemmy.world 1w ago

Eh, close enough.

1w ago

sleep rule

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Quetzalcutlass @lemmy.world 1w ago

I have legit gone to bed on a Friday and not left it until Sunday. Depression is the worst superpower.

1w ago

Minns wants new laws to block protests after terror attacks

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Quetzalcutlass @lemmy.world 1w ago

Never let a good tragedy go to waste!

1w ago

Germany: Pro-Putin lawmaker from far-right AfD party charged with giving the Nazi salute in the parliament

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Quetzalcutlass @lemmy.world 1w ago

Who amongst us hasn't called for the extermination of marginalized ethnic groups after feeling a little economic anxiety?

1w ago

"Media consumption"

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Quetzalcutlass @lemmy.world 1w ago

When you have the time, you don't have the motivation.

When you have the motivation, you don't have the time.

When you have both, you don't have the energy.

1w ago

Zombie horde shooter World War Z is getting a big The Walking Dead DLC

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Quetzalcutlass @lemmy.world 1w ago

So in other words the game's finally getting Romero-style zombies that match the book canon rather than the awful WWZ movie?

2w ago

Attitudes

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Quetzalcutlass @lemmy.world 2w ago

They're used as ad-hoc databases. Mission critical ones!

2w ago

1944 Brogan Doodlebug

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Quetzalcutlass @lemmy.world 2w ago

The closer you are to the ground, the faster it feels like you're moving. 45 in that thing probably feels like 80 in a regular car.

2w ago

Do we have No Man's Sky fans here?

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Quetzalcutlass @lemmy.world 2w ago

I found the combat frustratingly bland, and Hello Games don't seem interested in improving it. The first time I played was several years after release, and I was surprised to learn the only two enemy encounters that were at all fun or interesting (the sentinel mech and capital ships) were only recently added. That was years ago, and I don't think they've added any new major enemies since. Last I checked there were less than twenty enemy types in the entire galaxy and most are braindead "approach and shoot at the player until you die" types.

The on-foot weapons also feel anemic and sluggish - even your heavy weapons feel like shooting someone with a Nerf gun while whispering pew pew under your breath until they explode, and your actions will often be delayed waiting for an animation to complete (unstowing your weapon every few seconds being the main offender). Ship weapons are better by virtue of not having animations and being the same as every space game ever.