The fact that you didn’t find it fun is totally valid. BG3 is a very opinionated game that gets a huge number of things right for its target audience - the people who really enjoy CRPGs, branching paths, and choice driven gameplay. It does sound like that you’re really not into those things, so BG3 could never have been an excellent experience.

The games that you list are designed to be mostly linear experiences, so it was possible for the devs to make the core gameplay shine because they had time to really polish those systems and interactions. There was enough people and time to really tune RDR2’s gunplay, the horse riding, the hunting and tracking, and make the world feel organic.

BG3’s dev time was spent on tuning the combat encounters, tuning the class building options, and making sure the world (almost) always made sense. While baking in hundreds of stories about your companions, side characters, abusive store owners, and lost puppies. The game never holds your hand, only asks “here you are, this is what you’ve done, what do you do now?”. The amount of effort put into respecting the moment to moment choices made by the player is staggering.

The complexity in these systems in BG3 left preeetty clear issues with things that would otherwise have time to be polished out of a game before release (animation jank, visual bugs, pathing, pausing). For me, they were more like bumps in a very scenic road. But I hear you when you come in expecting a shiny polished RPG but there’s all these fourth wall breaking bits that kind of stall the whole show every like 5 minutes.

I think there’s enough nuance here to have both sides of the coin be true - it’s an absolute masterpiece for the players who enjoy the specific experience it offers, and it only makes sense to feel it’s overrated when you’re coming in expecting a cinematic or visceral experience.

Stainless steel is not forgiving for delicate proteins, but it’s not impossible. Oil coverage and temperature control will get you most of the way there. Being patient and waiting for the fish to release (without overcooking) is the tough part.

Stainless steel, flat-ish bottom, tall curved (wok-like) sides, all metal. Something like this mf: https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81O93YXWJ-L._AC_SL1500_.jpg

you can:

• pan fry
• stir fry
• stew
• throw it in the oven for roasts
• soup in a pinch
• use it on every kind of stove top

care:

• minimal
• steel wool and scraping is a-okay if it gets nasty!

downsides:

• you’ll never have a good time frying wet starches like noodles without some serious oil
• your first 4 attempts at pan fried fish will inevitably result in destruction
• fried eggs are gonna be tough

quirks:

• heats and cools very quickly, so you’ll have to break some habits if you ever expand your cookery collection with carbon steel or cast iron

totally understandable, they’re so close in controls, but so completely different in gameplay and pacing.

Ahh, for some folks, MOBAs are RTS games with the worst bits taken out!

As soon as I saw it’s locked at 30fps, it immediately killed any amount of interest I had in playing it. All the power to people who can stomach action games at what feels like a slide-deck input response.

I think Celeste is designed to be a super narrow experience - pure platforming. I found it pretty pleasant, but not what I’m generally looking to play. I personally don’t think it’s overhyped - the platforming design and movement is really very excellent. Having said that, not my cup of tea either.

nooooo not minesweeper ;-;

it’s dark souls 2, so there must be 2 of everything!

If camping is a problem, it’s almost always a system issue.

There’s some fantastic suggestions in the thread already, so I won’t repeat any of them. However I will note that if you’re particularly sensitive to flavours, it’s going to be nigh impossible to get anywhere close to chicken without actual chicken. If you try a bunch of veggie stock and end up still not quite satisfied, I’ve found success redirecting a dish toward a different main ingredient instead - coconut, peanut, etc. - so that I end up appreciating the dish for without comparing it with a meat-based version.

I can’t think of a story focused game that fits any of these points… has OP played many story driven games before?