I also still browse the desktop site when I’m at work and I feel like the vibe has nosedived. Shit post subs like AITAH are front paging more than ever, the subs I frequent have less activity and that activity is lower quality. I am getting way more rude, unhelpful, ignorant comments.
Ive seen so many posts by people who trashed the game after not even getting to the start of the time loop, calling it a bad walking sim with nothing to do.
Modern games have programmed people to be incurious and intellectually lazy
It tells me they are used to cuddly friendly fandoms. They’ve definitely never played real toxic games like Mordhau or anything Paradox has made. There are games that are legit >50% neonazis and avowed racists.
I can tell no one here has played Mordheim lol. It’s basically wall to wall neo Nazis spamming racial slurs. I got regular death threats, like almost every match. Destiny? Little league bullshit.
I don’t see why people would even go to a site to read AI generated articles and be bombarded with ads. I could just ask an AI to write an article for me? Just cut out the middle man at that point.
Others have brought up Dark Messiah which I think is a very decent rec.
Dragon Age Origins has some pretty powerful mages, but it might lack the physicality you’re after.
For Bethesda games I think magic is much better in Morrowind and Oblivion than Skyrim
Also, this is a little niche but Dragons Dogma has some awesome mages. It’d a little punchier and more action oriented than most western RPGs.
Lastly, Guild Wars 2 has surprisingly fun combat for a decade old MMO and it’s free.