
But the first-person genre can deliver another kind of experience, too. There’s always a trade-off of the possibility of bad-faith playing by trolling players when a game’s main design is all around pools of strangers also playing. Those so-called “Griefers” camp out in unfair spots in games, knocking out players as they respawn for cheap points, kill-stealing, being away-from-keyboard (AFK) in a squad, and just collecting experience from others’ efforts. Like Jean-Paul Sartre said in No Exit, “Hell is other people.” Sometimes it is frustrating to be playing against folks who take delight in ruining other people’s days. Battle royales, team battles, capture the flag battles, all in an endless series of skirmishes and rounds. Online first-person shooter (FPS) games deliver an adrenaline rush and millions of players log in each day to do battle to get it. Nothing beats jumping into a game against real-life people, connected through signals and wires across the internet, all in a shared virtual space to see who is better than whom.

Older titles like Psychonauts might seem dated, but there's a reason so many old titles are receiving major sequels in 2021: they're just great games.There’s no denying the thrill that comes with human competition. Some of the most celebrated games of the last decade, like Hotline Miami and Hollow Knight, are deceptively simple in appearance and offer greater challenges than many triple-A games.

Games haven't had a significant increase in visual fidelity in a long, long time, and many developers are turning to simpler, more stylized visuals to get the attention of everyone no matter the specs. In 2021, though, the video game industry is very different. Updated Octoby Erik Petrovich : Being able to run top-shelf games used to be restricted to gamers who had the most investment in their PC setups. This is not to say that the 2D games have little to offer, though, as some of the best games of the last decade just happen to have few hardware requirements. While most low-end PC games are pixel-based or two-dimensional, there are a number of 3D games that run great no matter your specs. RELATED: Indie Games To Help Fill the Void Before Horizon Forbidden West Releases Not having top-line PC hardware isn't as much of a limiting factor as it was in the past, though, thanks to the indie gaming boom of the last decade and the inclusion of in-depth video settings in most modern games.

Beautiful gaming experiences were once a thing restricted to gamers with high-end PCs or the latest consoles.
