This question popped into my head when I was playing Void Stranger. I just got done with the game and will probably never play it again despite not finishing it. The game is genuinely amazing but it just gets so demanding as you progress through it. I ended up watching the second half of the game on YouTube.
What is your favorite game that you feel is really cool and special but you never felt the pull of actually finishing it, and why?
Europa Universalis IV and Stellaris. For exactly the same reasons.
I spend way too much time in those games. Hundreds of hours each. But the end game is just too much of a slog. You already won, so there is no challenge; the framerate tanks into unplayable territory; and the micromanagement to manage the late game wars and economy becomes insane.
But starting with a different empire, and doing early/mid game again is awsome!
I have one of the fastest, most powerful laptops that exist, and the last century or so of stellaris brings it to a crawl.
Bg3 at 4k ultra settings? 144fps. Stellaris? There are some entire seconds without a new frame.
Same reason that Dwarf Fortress also has the same problem. Simulation is a lot heavier than graphics, and it’s CPU heavy, but gaming computer usually have acceptable CPUs and powerhouse GPUs, so they bottleneck on the CPU with simulation games.
I have an i9 13900, so uh, it isn’t exactly a mid tier CPU.
Stellaris just can’t have a full, long game without eating shit at the end frame wise.