The state of gaming is disappointing

TLDR;

If anyone has some awesome games for android/PC/PS5 with no P2W mechanics I'm in need of suggestions


I recently re-opened both Clash Royale and Clash of Clans only to find out that they have been turned into P2W slop... Unfortunate to say the least. If you need examples, I'm 4500 trophies and my king tower is level 9, my best troops are level 10. I'm facing nothing but level 12+ king towers and all their troops are level 13. Yes this can be overcome by skill, but I don't own any of the new cards, and I don't care to play from behind. In CoC it's the same concept with hero equipment.

Then I thought I would check out the newest "Knights of Pen and Paper 3" only to find out most classes and features are locked behind a paywall.

Then I re-opened "Overmortal" only to find out that this idle game where you accumulate points to increase your character's level was trying to charge me money to "reclaim" all the XP I should have accumulated which makes 0 sense to me

It's just really depressing, the older I get the more I'm starting to realize that anything and everything is just made to squeeze money out of you. I'm not poor by any means, I'm in a dual income household. It's just exhausting and now I see it everywhere in gaming too. I really want there to be more studios like the one who made "Baldur's Gate 3".

I have 0 issue with paying for a superb game up front, even if I have to pay more than a standard cost for a complete game with no "pay to win" mechanics.

Seems I'm stuck with OSRS (arguably has P2W features as well being able to buy bonds, but meh) and single player or story games. Maybe shooters, but even CoD has soft pay to win mechanics with locking the new season's OP weapons to the latest tiers in the battle pass. Can't tell you how many times I was unlocking a gun a few hours or a day after it finally gets nerfed into oblivion. I guess ranked mode mitigates this a bit.

I was thinking League of Legends but I really don't like the concept of not being able to own/play every champion that releases just because I'll never acquire all the blue essence required unless I dedicate the next 8 years to the game. Maybe I can buy an old account with lots of blue essence or all champs unlocked, not sure how reasonably priced this would be (if anyone knows, let me know)

Anyways, rant over. What do you guys think about the state of gaming with the micro transactions and the never ending DLC and the new age method of developers releasing and selling half baked games under the guise of "it's still in Alpha/Beta testing"? Maybe I'm just being too cynical

 

This isn't directly an answer to your question, mostly because I don't play many games & I don't have anything to recommend, but you just mentioned a number of bad freemium mobile games and then compared it to a $60 AAA game. Studios want to make money, so if something if free/freemium it's probably trying to siphon money out of you in more insidious ways, which is even more common in mobile garbage. Baldur's Gate 3 already got your $60 if you're playing it.

If you are looking for an android game, I'd at least check the cheap/paid games, maybe even something that's cross platform (like I'd consider playing Balatro or Binding of Isaac or something on mobile, as they're games proven outside of the mobile garbage market).

More directly, I think there's tons of great games out there, it's just that the studios making infinite money with live service and microtransactions (LoL, CoD, etc) have a much larger advertising budget so it's all we hear about.

 

You're right, my intention was to also say how it has changed over the years. I was an extremely active Clash of Clans F2P and I was fully maxed, even up until TH14. Before this point there was no required P2W, and I neglected to articulate that, thanks for pointing it out!

As far as your recommendations: I've heard great things about both Balatro & Binding of Isaac but I kept forgetting the names. Thank you! @CuppaJava

 

You are absolutely right, they have become a tragedy. I used to play COC and I left the town hall level 12 all to the maximum. A few months ago, I reinstalled it and noticed an absurd amount of paid things in the store. Haha, the same with Clash Royale. It would be good if they put a single payment to get all the other improvements at 10%, haha, otherwise it's still more of the same.

 

Maybe the answer lies in indie games created by passionate developers. The hard part is that they’re often hard to find since they don’t get much publicity. Personally, I’ve been revisiting old PS2 titles on my PC (pre 2008 childhood nostalgia copium).

 

I need some of these gems to be remastered, I almost got my wish with Bravely Default remastered for the new switch, but they made it a bit worse from reading reviews

I never knew when I was growing up that I was experiencing the golden age of gaming. I think the next big step will be VR/full immersion. Hopefully in our lifetime. It's looking good now that neuralink has been "successful" in human trials

 

you tried locking in?

 

I've not had time lately because of business, but earlier this year I was doing exactly the same. I even bought a couple of consoles and original games. I enjoyed being able to afford literally anything (within reason) that I couldn't as a child and teenager.

 

I have enjoyed playing older console and games TBH. I pulled out the old Gameboy just yesterday to play Pokémon Yellow. Yes could have loaded it on a GBA emulator, but then I would used cheats and not enjoyed it.

I have also got back into VR gaming. Since last time I have used my VR to now is a big change. I think VR gaming is getting better and will become the next big gaming format.

 

You can download any retro game from Abandonware. Wolfenstein ET is still alive and well 20 years later best FPS ever imho. I finally purchased a decent computer, and I'm just overwhelmed on how many things I can play. Browse Steam?