I'll second Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen. I wish Dragon's Dogma 2 ran better on lower-end systems/was less intense, though the character creator received a nice bump in quality from DD:DA

u mentioned below that you like RPGs, so if in particular party-based, tactics RPG gameplay is ur jam, im gonna recommend some of my personal hits that are mostly indies that I've also rec'd in the past:

Creator of Another World - $13.29, Demo Available - More roguelite than roguelike, fairly relaxing difficulty; a power fantasy that essentially an 'isekai' actually made into a videogame that simulates most of a game world, with inspiration from the roguelike Elona. Made by one indie Japanese dev. Has basic visual modding.

Our Adventurer Guild - $10.49, Demo Available - Assume the role of a guildmaster who is responsible for hiring adventurers and controlling them in battle to complete quests. Presentation in art and text is amateurish imo, charmingly reminiscent of like, 2000s AdventureQuest; but party-building possibilities are vast and combat is tight. Made by one indie German dev. Has basic variable modding. Will have its one DLC coming out soon^TM that rounds out some of the higher-level classes and introduces spears among other things.

Together in Battle - $19.99, Demo Available - Not on sale, but promoting it anyway because it just entered 1.0 nearly two months ago and I think it's a v well polished indie RPG that's being slept on. You assume the role of an arena team manager, hiring, training, and controlling them in fights, but also get involved in a political whodunit to fulfill your goals. The city of TIB, Kalkerapur, receives quite a bit of love and development in ways not shown in the settings of the prior two games. Made by one dev who used to make the Telepath RPG games back in the Flash era. Has custom campaign modding.

Stolen Realm - $7.99 - Procgen RPG with multiplayer capability in which every enemy and, in multiplayer, every one of the six party members can move and act simultaneously on their side's turn. Has a mix-and-match skill system similar to what is found in the Divinity: Original Sin series, and approximates it in environmental interactions. Chaotic enough in base game, supposedly more so with its 'Chaos Pack' DLC. Warning that having a high number of visual effects on the actors and field will slow down your computer, as it did for my mid-high-tier gaming laptop. Made by an indie studio.

Horizon's Gate - $9.99 - Sailing-based, exploration-and-trading-type RPG in 16-bit artstyle. Also has extensive modding capabilities and a small modding scene. Consider also its predecessor Alvora Tactics ($4.99) which is less developed, but is more of a focused, proc-gen dungeon crawler. Made by one dev, all of their games are consistent quality.

Wildermyth -$16.24 - Tactical RPG that's very folklore- and storybook-themed in presentation, where one adventure can happen across generations of an adventuring party. The only project of an indie studio that announced it planned to dissolve(?) in some time after achieving its goals with this game. Extensive modding capabilities, small modding scene.

Hero's Adventure: Road to Passion - $10.79 - Wuxia-genre tactical RPG with pixel graphics and isometric view. Moderate modding scene, but most of is in Mandarin.

My Time at Sandrock - $19.99 - Farming/building simulator and action RPG, easy difficulty, set in a desert town. Made by a moderate Chinese studio. Has small modding scene. The sequel, 'My Time at Evershine', is currently under dev.

Kenshi - $11.99 - Jank engine, jank visuals, bleak survival squad management game in which getting the shit beat out of your homies and crawling away to live another day is the standard gameplay loop. Two of the three regional powers are unrepentant slavers, and destroying them is hard but honest work. Made by a small indie studio. Extensive modding scene.

The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - $6.99 Bethesda is part of Microsoft, which I believe is still on the BDS list, so consider pirating - Bethesda Games-type modding scene. Get a modlist through the program Wabbajack for either OpenMW or base engine, hit play, enjoy Bethesda's worldbuilding at its peak.

Crusader Kings III - $14.99 - Only Paradox game I've played. It's a nice ruler- and dynasty-simulator. Large modding scene.

Shooters?

Strike Force Heroes - 13.99 - Remake of a Flash game title, a 2D arena shooter, good for mindless fun and short matches. Made by an indie studio.

XCOM 2 Collection - $8.10 - Pretty much the primary "shooter" tactical turn-based game. Extensive modding, moderate modding scene.

Jagged Alliance 3 - $22.49 - The other "shooter" tactical game that I liked, with a focus on contemporary small arms and extensive weapon modding capabilities as your gang of mercenaries rampage across a fictional French African state. There's a mod in which you can play as the PLA (I haven't tried yet). Moderate modding capabilities and small scene.

Gunsmith Simulator - $15.49 - You're a gunsmith who fixes, upgrade, and recolors people's request for guns, and can shoot them at the range. I'm somewhat disappointed there's still no machine guns to dissect and customize, but it's a small thing. Made by small Polish studio. Small modding capabilities.

Fursan al-Aqsa: The Knights of the Al-Aqsa Mosque - $5.09 - Qassam-Brigades, death-to-the-IDF simulator.

would anyone happen to have a subscription to his Substack and be able to post the full article on this? interested in seeing if there's any more info on the indictments or potential impacts than what's already in the tweet.

Me feeling apprehensive whenever I meet fellow diaspora folk bc idk if they're going to be 'apolitical' or this kind of gross comprador lib. Bonus points if they're either of those types and white-worshippers.

I might have actually gotten gotten into a shouting match if a Chinese person I knew had this insane sign, I already get infuriated when a Chinese-American lib just casually drops "China bad" shit unprompted in conversation.

falling back into their favorite patterns of "trump bad" + anti-communism + "look at how incompetently these non-whites govern", seems like. Last one is pretty much the most consistent tenor of NYT's foreign affairs pieces throughout the years.

o hell yeah, commented in the news mega earlier about the possibility of a BlueAnon purge of "despicable disloyal Dems" for "usurping Joe", im pulling for this brainworm stew to congeal into a legitimate DNC faction from 2032 onwards and to result in Something Funny happening

🤔 could there end up being a BlueAnon offshoot down the line screaming for a purge of Dem operatives bc "they hit grandpa Joe with the cancer gun and got away with it!!" ?

I got into Elder Scrolls via Oblivion (2006) and spent untold hours in Skyrim. A few weeks ago, I finally got into trying out Morrowind (2002) for the first time ever, with mods expanding into the whole province of Morrowind among others, and its quickly shaping up to be my best experience in Elder Scrolls. The worldbuilding depth and characterization of opposing interests + imagination to paper over the cracks makes Morrowind so much more engaging than even past attempts at modded Skyrim with all my wishlist mods

checking thru the Nexus comments of TR, and someone is saying updating from 24.12 will require a new game since old areas got renamed, rip.

looking forward to eventually setting foot in Anvil or the Reach at around 400 hours or so, 200 hours after touching down on the mainland

playing through Morrowind for the first time ever after having bought it years back and only just got to Balmora, and im really blown away by how much more effort was put into the worldbuilding and its cohesion, both by Bethesda and modders. factions, for ex, appear so far to have more flavor and idk, "interactivity" and RP potential for the PC than Oblivion and certainly Skyrim. im invested in this shit, fr.

also it took me about 26 hours(!!) just to move from Seyda Neen to Pelagiad to just settling into Balmora with a v brief visit to Vivec with modded quests and gameplay, im p sure doing the majority of the TR+PC+SHOTN combo I mentioned in my other comment would take hundreds of hours easily. one could prob start now and by the time they reach the end of current content, another update to one of those three Tamriel Rebuilt/Project Tamriel mods will have dropped.

gdi I just started a full-255-plugin playthrough of Morrowind with MGE XE a few days ago containing Tamriel Rebuilt, Project Cyrodiil, and Skyrim Home of the Nords about a week ago and now a new update drops 😭. do I update now (or wait until some patches for new update with other mods also drop) and regenerate a merged patch and Distant Lands files in my ongoing playthru or is this going to req a new game??

someone already put up a mod on Nexus called "OG Body Type" to revert it to M/F 🙄