balatro

Baldur’s Gate 2.

It was the game that took my CRPG virginity. However, I finished the escape from the dungeon (basically the intro) and stopped playing it for a couple of years.

Then I randomly tried it again one weekend in university while drunk and marathoned it.

Skyrim was this for me. Took me a bunch of tries to get into it but its one of my most played games now

Monster Hunter.

There’s a community saying: everyone loves Monster Hunter, they just haven’t played it enough yet. It’s an incredibly common experience for new Monhun players to hate it on their first or even second go around, but then eventually fall in love! It happened for me twice in fact. I played Tri on the Wii back when I was a kid, and then World on release in college, but did not get far either time. Then I tried it again a few years later and now I have played at least one monster hunter game from every generation as well as most of the spinoffs and it is my favourite series ever!

Sekiro

Dwarf Fortress back in the day (I think it’s more user friendly now). I just couldn’t figure out how to do most things.

Then I just decided to like job it: watched some videos, took some notes – basically did my homework, then was able to build a base and last long enough to starve. And again. Then the next time ran out of booze. Then was doing great but eventually had too many dwarfs and starved again. Then goblins. Then a big monster. And it goes on like that and that’s the fun!

Arma 3 was a big reason why I built my first PC. Purchased it in alpha and fucking hated every second of it. Tried it again here and here but it just never clicked, everything was so confusing and it got worse as more dlc and mods were released…I just figured full simulations weren’t my thing but was still happy to support the game. In 2022 some friends had me join them for some KotH and I finally learned the basics. Then I joined an Antistasi group, told them I was new and they taught me everything. Now I own the entire series and routinely play A2, A3, and Reforger…I literally have a 2tb ssd just for Arma because I have so many mods, like I am full blown addicted to this shit now.

Space Engineers. It was a bit hard to get at first, but then it clicked like crazy

Monster Hunter for me.

TF2

The Witness.

Now to dive into this thread for my next play 👀

Kingdom Shell currently, holy crap what a bizarre and beautiful world.

The Citadel. I didn’t realize how fast the combat loop was at first. The first level was setup like a stop and pop shooter, but it’s really a run and gun style.

Hollow Knight

Oblivion, LittleBigPlanet