Gaming

The "Choose your reply (or none)" mechanic of 'Oxenfree'.

Mass Effect 1 is great for its time, good combats and good graphics. Also you could memorize the controls very fast, because it were intuitive and good distributed in the screen (also you had the help of the machine if you were too burned).

I like 'tank driving' with two joysticks. Fun times. :D

I know there a lot of games that have tried to emulate botw's look and style. And that's whatever, but honestly I love the glider so much, I'm cool if as many games as possible want to use that 🙂

I know it sounds silly but if I can pilot a vehicle then walk around in it WHILE IT'S IN MOTION. Man. The game gets a 10/10 from me after that. Outer Wilds, Star Citizen and Subnautica come to mind.

I'm bad at explaining but I love Kirby's boss battles, they're simple, challenging, and somehow extremely cinematic. Just can't get enough of them. If there's more games that are just the boss battles as a full game let me know.

In Everhood, an RPG with rhythm-based battles, you start out only being able to dodge enemy attacks. Much later into the game, your character regains their memories and a new sense of purpose as well as finally gaining the ability to attack.

Then you have to return to the battles you scraped by by dodging and look for opportunities to sneak attacks in. It adds a new level of challenge to an already challenging game.

Actraiser. That game was my favorite when it came out. Part Sim part platformer. Blew me away as a kid. I still give it a play through every few years.

• Whatever respects my reaction time is almost automatically a game that I will like. If I die in a game, I want to die knowing that I screwed up and it was not the fault of some clunking movement mechanic or due to some uninterruptible animations. Highlight: DOOM Eternal
• Whatever makes great gun-play. I don't even know how to describe it, it's one of those "you known when you feel it" types of situations. There are extremely few games that get this right. Highlight: Destiny 2, Halo Infinite

I've played mainly fighting games for years and my fav mechanic is the comeback mechanic ala XFactor in UMVC3, Instinct in the recent Killer Instinct, and the Critical Art in the new Street Fighter 6.

It ain't over till you see the K.O. screen.

There are a few that I find really cool.

The "bullet time" in the max payne series was very enjoyable to me. Dodge-flying around enemies while bullets hit your last position and all looking like you are in the matrix movie? Yes please!

Then there was the flying in GTA5. The controls and "feel" of all the vehicles are very good, but flying is really implemented in a great way. Its by no means to difficult to learn (like a real simulator), but has a pretty high skill ceiling. To really "fly beautifully" you have to know your shit. And thats not even counting fighting air-to-air or air-to-land. It's beautiful.

Also I'm a sucker for all atmospheric games. Bonus for being dystopic. The System-/Bioshock series, Stalker, Fallout, Cyberpunk2077 and many many more. Disco Elysium. Some games really are art in its purest form. Still entertainment, but art at the same time. I remember the first time I entered Novigrad in Witcher 3, not even on a good graphics card. Such a vivid, "living" town, with logical alleyways, bridges, beautiful architecture, soundstage just amazing, ... I think to this day no other game has surpassed W3 when it comes to creating a believable city. It's just art!