2026 VIDEO GAMES CATCH ALL THREAD

[SirSmUgly]

I've spent my time lately with Vampire Crawlers (it's fine, I'll beat it eventually, I won't get super-into it like I did with Survivors) and Retro Endurance 8bit (what a neat thing this is!), and I've used the Virtual Boy NSO app or made a Hades 2 run here and there in the margins, but mostly what I'm doing when I have time to play video games on the weekends is play N64 games on their native hardware. 

I have a curated collection with an equally curated list of games that I want to add to that collection, not that the N64's game output is particularly large. I've decided to sit down and dig deeply at them over the next however long so that I can understand them better, whether I've played them or not. Then, I'm gonna tier-list them. Hell yeah. 

Games ready to be placed: 

Paper Mario - This game occupies a strange place between Super Mario RPG and Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door. It apes the story and mechanics of SMRPG, adding the badge system as a neat way to do magic, but Intelligent Systems is still wrapping their heads around how to make those things their own, so while this is a very good game, TTYD ends up being the one that gets the snazzy remake because of how clearly Intelligent Systems came into their own with that game.

In the context of the N64, though, which has none of the SquareSoft RPGs that the PSOne did (and we'll talk more about those in a minute), Paper Mario is a very good game that is absolutely essential in the context of the console that it's on. It's also quite the swan song for the N64; it's got style and the colorful, storybook-style art direction is a particularly welcome sight considering how bleary and smeary a lot of these N64 games are turning out to be now that I'm going back through them. TIER: ESSENTIAL.

WCW/nWo Revenge and WWF No Mercy - I'm not going to spend many words on these games. They're excellent, though they have their flaws (why is Van Hammer popping up from my first Razor's Edge, nevermind the second one that I squeezed in? Why does everyone else pop up from them too, particularly when I'm taking Scott Hall through a title ladder? Who tuned the AI for title ladders, anyway?). No Mercy is Revenge with a robust story option, a much better create-a-wrestler suite, charming frame-a-second TitanTrons, moves that can be done out of a run, and DIG DIGGITY DOG, so if you could only purchase one AKI pro wrestling simulator, that'd be the one. Revenge TIER: GENERALLY WORTH COLLECTING; No Mercy TIER: ESSENTIAL.

Games that I'm currently evaluating:

Hybrid Heaven - Speaking earlier of SquareSoft games, my favorite one of the PSOne era is easily Parasite Eve. This game reminds me of that game in both surface-level and very specific ways. They both involve silly sci-fi plots in which the protagonist has to fight hideous chimera-looking beasties, for one. But beyond that, they both sort of play alike in combat. In both this game and in PE, when you enter combat with most enemies, you are standing within a space that you can move around, and your goal is to move in that space and avoid engaging with or being hit by the enemy until a meter fills up and you can attack (or use an item). As someone who finds the traditional turn-based approach to RPGs to be braindead and boring as fuck in most RPGs (with a huge exemption for turn-based SRPGs), I've always liked this twist on turn-based battle systems. I couldn't get through the FFVII remake because I hated the story, voice acting, and frankly most of the characters, but that game had the perfect evolution of this type of battle system. The actual combat in that game is stellar, and I think you can draw a line from PE directly to it in a lot of ways. 

All this is to say that this is an interesting game that is also frustrating in all the ways that some of these dark, smeared N64 games can be. The start of the game puts you in an underground facility with only a semi-helpful map to guide you and a bit of checkpoint starvation to boot. You're also given a gun to shoot these annoyingly plentiful security drones, and of course, shooting a gun with a single-analog controller and a bunch of C-buttons that snap your camera around isn't a thrilling time. The only reason that I got to the fun part of this game - and found out that in the fun part of this game, you can learn a bunch of wrestling grapples and fuck dudes up with body slams, piledrivers, and Boston Crabs (!!!) - is that I decided to sit down and grind away at the first ten minutes of drone shooting, walking around large, empty, dank spaces, and looking for buttons to shoot so that a door would open. 

I'm going to sit back down with it maybe for an hour this week before bed so that I don't forget what the heck I've learned about it, but one thing that I'm tempted to further learn is when to dodge, step back, or attempt to counter when on defense. I also need to figure out if certain attacks are best for certain enemies. All that said, this battle system allows me to do things like target limbs (you get a tiny icon of a human body that shows limb damage for both you and your enemy opponent like you're playing a WWE 2K game, seriously) and I sense that there is a fun and interesting depth to the combat that I haven't even begun to scratch. This one is intriguing. 

StarFox 64 - I want to get good at this again before the remake comes out. I'll never be as good as I was when I was a teen and played the shit out of this to an absurd point, but I'd like to go into the remake with some skill. This game needs that remake, too. I was very much thinking that SF64 being remade again probably was a bit of overkill on Nintendo's part, but this game is dark as hell. Like what the hell am I even shooting at in Aquas? I got the medal for that level (it's the easiest one to medal, to be clear), and I'm not sure I actually spied half my kills. The remake looks gorgeous in terms of locations (not so much character design), and also, there's actual lighting in every level as far as I can tell. This game is probably going to be ESSENTIAL even after the remake comes out, but only in the context of this console. If the remake is as sound as it seems it might, I'm not sure why anyone would come back to this version. 

[odessasteps]

 

[SirFozzie]

On 5/9/2026 at 7:58 PM, odessasteps said:

 

So glad I bought the collections on steam, even if I don't really play them, just so I COULD play them if I wanted to.

[odessasteps]

Ultima iv is apparently free on GOG. 

[Dragon]

https://newmd.games/xiaomei-and-the-flame-dragons-fist/

 

[Tabe]

17 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Ultima iv is apparently free on GOG. 

It's been free on various platforms for at least twenty years. 

[Zimbra]

31 minutes ago, Tabe said:

It's been free on various platforms for at least twenty years. 

Hell, the boxed copy of Ultima VI I bought out of a discount bin 30+ years ago had a postcard where I could send away for a free copy of Ultima IV

[RIPPA]

I tend to describe it for myself as being "overwhelmed" when a game suddenly drops 92485251 things at once that you could do.

It used to not bother me at all until fucking Mass Effect 2 (and more so in ME3) where you could do whatever you wanted but there were hidden counters that if you dilly dallied too long bad things would happen

That's why the mild panic attacks would start and I generally now do a quick check on a game to see if there are timers

Now that all being said - if I am enjoying a game, I don't mind bopping around and doing all the side stuff

[odessasteps]

Ultima IV being free is great because it’s such a wonderfully atypical RPG with no real big bad and your goal is to be a better person. 

[Tabe]

5 hours ago, odessasteps said:

Ultima IV being free is great because it’s such a wonderfully atypical RPG with no real big bad and your goal is to be a better person. 

Richard Garriott wrote it specifically to counter the negative incentives in the first three games - you get rewarded for stealing, killing guards, etc. 

[odessasteps]

Ultima 3 was also targeted during the satanic panic by Jerry Falwell because the bad guy on the cover was a demon who looked like Chernabog from Fantasia. 

and Ultima V was all about people using the virtues in a warped way for bad purposes. 

[odessasteps]

 

[J.T.]

On 5/11/2026 at 5:15 PM, RIPPA said:

I tend to describe it for myself as being "overwhelmed" when a game suddenly drops 92485251 things at once that you could do.

It used to not bother me at all until fucking Mass Effect 2 (and more so in ME3) where you could do whatever you wanted but there were hidden counters that if you dilly dallied too long bad things would happen

That's why the mild panic attacks would start and I generally now do a quick check on a game to see if there are timers

Now that all being said - if I am enjoying a game, I don't mind bopping around and doing all the side stuff

Same which is why I'm dreading my eventual Starfield replay after the new update. I am sure my exploding mission log will send me into fits of rage.

Not only is there a new Tracker's Alliance mission that is tied to the Mantis mission (comes with the Tracker's Alliance Official Creation, IIRC), if you do the Mantis mission BEFORE you officially join the Tracker's Alliance you get to use the call sign, "Mantis."

Mentally sorting this shit in a reasonable linear order that doesn't skip anything makes my head hurt.

Edited May 14 by J.T.

[odessasteps]

I already gave up on new Vegas. Not really my jam. 

[Craig H]

Because I'm getting a little burned out on Dota 2...again (this probably the 4th or 5th time I've gone through this cycle)...and because I'm anxiously waiting for the next PoE 2 update at the end of this month, I decided to try out...League of Legends. For science.

I mainly wanted to try out LoL to see why it has more visibility than Dota 2 and why it's played more than Dota 2 among streamers who play only shooters on streams. It never made a whole lot of sense to me because Dota 2 is so incredibly deep and balanced so there must be some kind of a draw with LoL. And after playing for a few hours, I figured it out. If you have never played a MOBA and you went to LoL first then there is no way you would want to play Dota 2. The latter is not even remotely as accessible as LoL. Dota 2 is punishingly hard getting started out. There are 140 characters or something, tons of items, so many heroes have more than 4 abilities, on top of your abilities the items you purchase are half the time not passive items and are active items so you can regularly have at least 10 keys you're having to use during team fights. If you go to Dota 2 first then one of three things happens: 1) You're fully put off by MOBAs and swear them off. 2) You give up because it's too hard and play LoL and feel like you're not a punching bag. 3) You stick with it because you're attracted to team sports or games with a high degree of difficulty. LoL just isn't nearly as punishing as Dota 2 so it makes sense for that to have a larger presence among streamers. It's not by any means easy, but it's the perfect example of a game that doesn't take long to learn but takes forever to master. However, I will say that LoL has a very mobile game feeling to it. There's something about the look of it, how fast games go, and the complete lack of any weight to your movements or attacks. Everything feels very...airy or hollow? It's hard to explain. Or maybe not. It's like playing No Mercy where wrestlers and moves have a very tangible weight to them and then going to SmackDown games which are more weightless and arcadey.

[Zimbra]

On 5/5/2026 at 9:38 AM, Zimbra said:

I also bought myself Star Wars: Outlaws as a late bday gift to myself and woof, this is not good.

Of course Outlaws will be in the PS+ game catalog next month.  Womp womp.

[Cliff Hanger]

Mr. Do! is this week's Arcade Archives game, meaning Hamster have come to an agreement for the Universal catalog. There aren't that many important games there, but Space Panic is absolutely one of the most under-remembered games of the golden age in terms of its importance and Lady Bug is a great maze chase that's different enough from Pac-Man to be worth a release too. And of course there's 4 more Mr. Do! games if we count Neo Mr. Do on Neogeo.

[J.T.]

On 5/14/2026 at 10:36 AM, Craig H said:

Because I'm getting a little burned out on Dota 2...again (this probably the 4th or 5th time I've gone through this cycle)...and because I'm anxiously waiting for the next PoE 2 update at the end of this month, I decided to try out...League of Legends. For science.

Well if you ever wanted to do it for money, there seems to be a market for LoL Twitch streams where players lose their shit. I have been watching poor Nissaxter try to get promoted to Gold for years. Profanities delivered in rapid fire Spanish never gets old.

 

Edited May 16 by J.T.

[J.T.]

On 5/8/2026 at 11:47 PM, Craig H said:

God, Starfield, what a disappointing game. One of the few games I went from thinking was amazing to...realizing it's just the same shit over and over and nothing you do actually matters on top of a game world that's completely barren.

I guess I'm weird. I actually hate the overabundance of repetitive POIs in Starfield. Eight of the nine planets in our own solar system are inhospitable. Having every single planet or moon have a colony or pirate base on it bothers me, especially if I am encountering the fucking Abandoned Cryo Lab every third time I land on some rock.

I'm still waiting for the mod that adds more diversified astronomical bodies to the game like black holes or magnetars. 

[Chaos]

I keep seeing content referencing Uncharted 4 (I'll throw game list or game discussion videos on as background noise from time to time), so it motivated me to finally get to the end of Uncharted 2, which I powered through at the end of last night.  I thought this was a game that I had started 3-4 years ago. When I went and looked through my trophies, I had gotten the first UC2 trophy in the PS4 collection back in 2016.  Time is weird because I would not have guessed it would have taken me 10 years to get to the end of the game, but it's a weird one where every couple of years, I would just pick back up where I left off, knock out a few chapters, and then move on to some other interest or distraction.  The game definitely shows its age as I powered through the end of it (I mean moreso mechanically because visually it's obvious). 

Without spoiling anything, I do like that one of the final gameplay sequences of the game is a nice Naughty Dog throwback to one of the Crash Bandicoot boulder levels.

I'm now debating if I skip 3 to play 4 or if I should play 3 first. 

[supremebve]

16 minutes ago, Chaos said:

I keep seeing content referencing Uncharted 4 (I'll throw game list or game discussion videos on as background noise from time to time), so it motivated me to finally get to the end of Uncharted 2, which I powered through at the end of last night.  I thought this was a game that I had started 3-4 years ago. When I went and looked through my trophies, I had gotten the first UC2 trophy in the PS4 collection back in 2016.  Time is weird because I would not have guessed it would have taken me 10 years to get to the end of the game, but it's a weird one where every couple of years, I would just pick back up where I left off, knock out a few chapters, and then move on to some other interest or distraction.  The game definitely shows its age as I powered through the end of it (I mean moreso mechanically because visually it's obvious). 

Without spoiling anything, I do like that one of the final gameplay sequences of the game is a nice Naughty Dog throwback to one of the Crash Bandicoot boulder levels.

I'm now debating if I skip 3 to play 4 or if I should play 3 first. 

For whatever it's worth, 3 is the one I liked the least.  It's not bad, but I think 2 and 4 are the pinnacle of the series.  

[twiztor]

On 5/10/2026 at 7:36 PM, SirSmUgly said:

Mostly what I'm doing when I have time to play video games on the weekends is play N64 games on their native hardware. 

I have a curated collection with an equally curated list of games that I want to add to that collection, not that the N64's game output is particularly large. I've decided to sit down and dig deeply at them over the next however long so that I can understand them better, whether I've played them or not. Then, I'm gonna tier-list them. Hell yeah.

count me as a subscriber for this project!

the n64 will always feel like MY system. i was firmly on Team Nintendo during the PlayStation War, and the 64 is the first system that i bought with my own money. So i will, forever and always, hold it with special regard. i also have a curated collection (i settled on 64 games for synergy's sake) and i'll be interested to see where we differ. Probably lots of places- already i don't have Paper Mario or Hybrid Heaven, although both JUST missed my cutoff and could always swap in at some later point. I don't know if this is on your list, but Silicon Valley doesn't play nicely if you have the Expansion Pack installed. Some won't play at all, some will crash, and some have no issues. Just fair warning. Also, get yourself a nice set of top labels so the games display nicer. 

i very much look forward to reading your progress and evaluations. i probably haven't turned mine on in 4-5 years. i'm at the point that i love the IDEA of the system more than the act of playing it. 

Edited May 15 by twiztor

[Technico Support]

7 hours ago, Chaos said:

I keep seeing content referencing Uncharted 4 (I'll throw game list or game discussion videos on as background noise from time to time), so it motivated me to finally get to the end of Uncharted 2, which I powered through at the end of last night.  I thought this was a game that I had started 3-4 years ago. When I went and looked through my trophies, I had gotten the first UC2 trophy in the PS4 collection back in 2016.  Time is weird because I would not have guessed it would have taken me 10 years to get to the end of the game, but it's a weird one where every couple of years, I would just pick back up where I left off, knock out a few chapters, and then move on to some other interest or distraction.  The game definitely shows its age as I powered through the end of it (I mean moreso mechanically because visually it's obvious). 

Without spoiling anything, I do like that one of the final gameplay sequences of the game is a nice Naughty Dog throwback to one of the Crash Bandicoot boulder levels.

I'm now debating if I skip 3 to play 4 or if I should play 3 first. 

I’d never played a single Uncharted game because I went from PS2 to Xbox in 2006 and only recently went back to PS with PS5, but Uncharted 4 is really good!  The DLC story for it is also fun, and actually features one “open world” section.

[odessasteps]

Uncharted and Spidey were the PS games I wanted to play once I finally got a PS5. Still haven’t played any of them. 

[Technico Support]

Apparently RDR2 is coming out on PS+ soon.  In other news, god damn, they’re going to make me play through RDR2 again.   (already beat it in Xbone and Series S).