[wao0uuno]

Most of the best games I have ever played are either indies or Nintendo games. Feels like independent developers and sometimes Nintendo are the only ones still trying to make fun games with original ideas while the rest of the industry has shifted its focus entirely towards cookie cutter slop and lazy remasters.

[hedora]

I just bought a pile of excellent, recent-ish games for an average of << $10 each from steam. (Summer sale; ended.)

Some were remakes/successors to excellent ps2 titles from big studios, but there were multiple new genres of games (to me, at least) from indie studios. No multiplayer bullshit or predatory dark patterns so far. I didn’t check carefully, but I don’t think any of them were released before 2020.

[wao0uuno]

Would you mind sharing some of those titles? Some of my indie favorites from the last couple of years are:

Animal Well (Unique metroidvania)

Axiom Verge (Metroidvania)

Cave Story+ (Metroidvania)

Cocoon (Puzzle game)

Cultic (Shooter)

Dusk (Shooter)

Hollow Knight + Silksong (Metroidvania)

Nightmare of Decay (Resident Evil 1 inspired horror/puzzle game with sense of humor)

Pseudoregalia (3D platformer + metroidvania)

Supraworld and previous titles in this series. (3D first person metroidvania/puzzle game)

Firewatch (Walking sim with good story and dialogues)

Orbo's Oddysey (Unique 3D platformer)

UFO 50 (Retro/minigame compilation)

Selaco (Shooter)

Ion Fury (Shooter)

Outer Wilds (Exploration/puzzle game)

Teardown (Voxel based destruction simulator with missions and multiplayer)

Spiritfarer (Tear jerker)

And some games that look promising but I have not played yet: Gloomwood, Fortune's Run, Cruelty Squad, Crow Country, Celeste, Bloodstained, Hedon, Kenshi, La Mulana, Lorn's Lure, Lunacid, Nine Sols, Pizza Tower, Psycho Patrol R, Signalis, Touhou Luna Nights, Zortch, Chants of Sennaar, Easy Delivery Co., Juice Galaxy, Metal Garden, Tiny Terry's Turbo Trip, Star of Providence, Denshattack!, No, I'm not a Human, 1000xRESIST, Wizordum, Mouthwashing, Pikuniku, Mina the Hollower, Shovel Knight, Pepper Grinder, Inscryption, Stasis: Bone Totem, Pentiment, The Drifter, The Invincible, Keeper, Caves of Qud, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk and many, many more.

I guess my point is: There are so many good ass games around that there is no reason to play any of that big corpo AAA slop.

[bigstrat2003]

I wholeheartedly agree. Very few AAA games even seem remotely interesting to me these days. Indie games are often good, as are Nintendo games, but that's about it.