In a bit of a pre upgrade slump, what do you recommend?
The 9800X3D just came out, so I'm looking to upgrade my 2017 PC to join the modern era, which means I'm waiting to play Baldurs Gate 3 (runs, but not ideal), Dead Space Remake (poorly optimised), Space Marine 2, Cyberpunk, Metaphor etc when I build my new rig in a couple of months.
In the meantime, I've finished some indies like Rise of the Golden Idol, first run of Satisfactory, did the Elden Ring DLC.
Then, there's the gap from now till the next RGG game and Monster Hunter, which would really scratch that action, open world itch.
Any recommendations for action games that feels like you're doing some exploration? Trying to get into a flow state. I may actually take a break and go read a book instead.
It's a little janky, and the blocky aesthetic may or may not be your thing, but it handles the idea of detective work better than any other game I've ever played. It's not just "Walk around in detective vision until you assemble enough clues for the character to tell you the solution." You have to actually think about things, examine the evidence, assemble a theory of the crime. Which is doubly impressive given that every crime is procedurally generated.
I just started playing Terraria again for the first time in a few years. TMODLoader is now a supported extension of it, so there's a ton of extra content and difficulty modifiers to play with. Having a randomly generated world with a mess of new and unknown stuff definitely scratches that exploration itch.
Did you ever play Divinity: Original Sin 2? Since you mentioned Baldur's Gate 3, it plays a lot like that, just minus the license and a much greater emphasis on environmental effects. It was super well-received at the time.
Have you tried the Star Wars Jedi games? Fallen Order should run fine on your machine and possibly Survivor too but that might be a little much for your rig. \
They're both wicked fun games that award exploration. I would call them souls-lite not soulslike since they are much easier than something like elden ring or sekiro (that doesn't mean they are easy though).
TYRANNY! It's an RPG from Obsidian that shares the Pillars of Eternity engine, very cool premise and story, main campaign is short so it shouldn't keep you occupied long, unless you decide to replay of course, the storyline changes A LOT depending on your actions (and even upon choices you make before even playing), so replayability is very high.
Second for BotW emulation, if you haven't played that yet. I took the emulation opportunity to set max_durability of all items at 400% with a helper program. Frick that noise, hahaha.
Actually on Nine Sols now, but the amount of concentration it needs it's quite high, so I can't stay in a session too long. Thinking of doing a Hollow Knight replay