Cethin

I got Single Player Tarkov working, but it was a pain in the ass. I think vanilla multiplayer won't, but it's been quite a while since I tried.

Anno is more city builder with some RTS elements. Definitely not Grand Strategy —arguably RTS.

I wouldn't say they're "incompatible" but they aren't synonyms. I haven't seen a grand strategy that is also an RTS, but I could see them co-existing potentially. Total War is close with its battles, except I think creating units and buildings is a requirement for the RTS genre.

Grand Strategy is generally: you control a nation and operate on a map of the world (sometimes limited to a region). You're continuously progressing your nation, constructing permanent buildings, unlocking permanent technologies, and improving your economy.

Examples: Europa Universalis, Crusader Kings, Total War.

RTS is: you control an army and win a battle on a relatively small map, where individual people are a relevant scale. You build units during the battle, but very few to no resources come into the battle from anything before, and very little to nothing changes after the battle.

Examples: Command and Conquer, Dune II, Starcraft.

I pretty sure I wouldn't have enjoyed it as much as EfT or definitely not ARC Raiders, but I still wanted to see what they decided to do differently. Yeah, they probably saved me some time.

They stated the obvious, which didn't add to the conversation, and also was wrong. There are a number of older games that just do not work on modern Windows. Frequently they work through WINE/Proton just fine though.

I was watching a video about extraction shooters and it mentioned a F2P Chinese one. I wasn't that interested in it, but I wanted to give it a try to see what it was doing differently. It didn't run though, because almost all Chinese games have kernel-level AC. I figure it's not a big loss. I own EfT, and I've got other extraction shooters to play, especially ARC Raiders now.

That was the last time, and the only time in a very long time, that a game I tried to play didn't just work.

100% of games worth playing work on Linux!

You aren't someone when playing a video game besides yourself. A third person view doesn't suddenly make people unable to feel as if they're playing as that character any more than a first person view does. For example, people can have a similar feeling even from books, with no agency.

You're making a weird argument based on some purity metric. Either way, you're playing a video game and controlling a character in the game. Neither view let's you be that character. Both let you be immersed and inhabit their role in the world.

I was largely being sarcastic. Yeah, Outer Wilds might be the only game that pretty much does it's own thing I've played in many years.

I've been playing The Finals a lot for quite a while now. I would say it's incredibly innovative and unique. However, it's still a first person shooter based on capturing an objective point. At its core, it's derivative. The way everything fits together is unlike anything else though. Just listing features that are shared by other games does not mean it isn't doing something different.

For the PvE aspect, the third person is great. The AI are an actual threat, and having the camera to look around corners or see around the player really helps.

For PvP I think it's a negative. It promotes safe play and gives an unfair advantage to certain situations.

Overall, I think it's a wash. Personally, I'd slightly prefer first person, but they've made third feel very good. I think you need to try it before making a judgement, and try it with an open mind without an opinion already formed. I thought I'd be more annoyed with it than I am.

Solo? Try talking to people. I've found that almost everyone in solo matches are likely to be friendly if you talk. (There's also a communication wheel if you don't want to or can't use a mic.)

Groups tend to fight 95% of the time though. At extract it's often OK, but before then not really.

Regardless, it sounds like you just might not be used to the genre. You can rat, and play really safe, avoiding high loot areas where players are likely to be. Alternatively, just pay attention. There's almost always signs players are around. If you see ARC with yellow or red lights, there are players there. If you see open containers or doors, or destroyed ARC then players have been there. You can also hear footsteps and looting pretty well. Just pay attention and you usually won't be jumped.

I don't feel like campers are an issue in the game though. I haven't experienced it. There are people who will spot you with the third person camera who it may feel like are camping, but they're almost always just being observant while looting and spotted you first. It's not like they're waiting at extract for you. I haven't seen that once yet and I've played a lot of matches.

You might be interested in Zero Sievert. If you already own (or obtain) Escape from Tarkov there's an amazing Single Player Tarkov mod that is legitimately probably the best way to play the game.

Every game is bland. Nothing is ever wholey unique. It takes elements from other things.

Whats the last "non-bland" game you've played?