Niche Games Thread

Hoo boy I got a bunch of these

SOMA (Frictional Games)

Wasteland 2 (inXile Entertainment)

SWAT 4 (Irrational Games)

System Shock 2 (Irrational Games, Nightdive Studios, Looking Glass Studios)

Both Mirror's Edge games (EA DICE)

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six 3 (Red Storm Entertainment, Ubisoft Montreal)

S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series (GSC Gameworld)

Shadowrun Returns (Harebrained Schemes, Harebrained Holdings)

My Summer Car (Amistech Games)

F.E.A.R. and expansions (Monolith Productions Inc, Timegate, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment)


Might write up descriptions for these at some point

>Starcraft
>Soulsborne
>*looks at thread title*

Everybody knows them though.

Alright, I've posted enough without contributing, I should actually talk about some vidya now and as my first post mentioned I'mma talk about motherfucking Ace Combat.

Ace Combat is a series of arcade flight combat games which in layman's terms means you're blowing up shit in fighter jets. Pretty simple, tons of fun, not your Digital Combat Simulator kind of flight combat - it's really easy to pick up and kick ass with, even if you're not used to aircraft controls.

Unusually for a game of this genre, Ace Combat (3 and onwards) actually includes some focus on story-telling, which works out really nicely. While they're not the most amazing stories out there, they lend context to what you're doing really nicely. The story usually starts off in your allies' last stand before the might of whatever enemy has taken over all of your territory, following through as you single-handedly turn the tide of the entire war, leading to your eventual victory. Along the way, you might see the effects of your victories from the viewpoint of someone living in enemy occupied territory, or see a reporter trying to investigate you years in the future, trying to find out whether or not you ever really existed.

The games have no story links so none are required to understand another (except 5 and Zero, but the link is tenuous at best). They all feature real-life aircraft, but are definitely not set in the real world. They all take place in "Strangereal", which is essentially a parallel universe in which planes hold hundreds of missiles and absurd super-weapons litter the Earth.

A big part of the games that makes the overall experience so much better is the power fantasy. Not only will you decimate ungodly numbers of enemy forces on a mission-by-mission basis and snatch victory from the jaws of defeat against an entire nation, those deeds don't go unnoticed. In almost every Ace Combat game, you make a name for yourself as the game progresses and in time, you become a beacon of hope for your allies and inspire dread in the enemy.

Something of special note is the music. Good lord, the music. Damn near every mission, regardless of how good or bad it might be, has excellent music. One thing I adore is the use of leitmotif. Throughout some of the games the same melody appears in many different tracks, and gets fleshed out into a full track for the final mission. The final mission itself is usually a super-weapon fight full of spectacle, and the music is no exception. Ace Combat Zero shows that orchestra, Latin chorus and Spanish flamenco is far better of a combination than it sounds.

The three PS2 titles, 04: Shattered Skies, 5: The Unsung War and Zero: The Belkan War are widely considered the series' peak. If you want a place to start, start there. If not on PS2, emulation is fairly easy and 5 and Zero run perfectly as of PCSX2 version 1.5.0.

TL;DR: Really fucking good arcade flight action games. Real jets, fake Earth with crazy super-weapons. Good story, excellent power fantasy and god-tier music. Play the PS2 games first.