Finally started a proper Kingdom Come: Deliverance playthrough. Hopefully I don't get squirrel'd away agai....new PoE league starts tomorrow you say?
Gaming thoughts, bite-size chewables - new orange flavor!
- Thread starter pauli
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Techtonica 1.0 launched today, and it's on sale for its launch week. This ended up being an abbreviated development cycle. It's not likely to end up being as expansive as it could have been, but the last chapter should wrap up the story, and it looks like it adds some interesting excavation mechanics to round out what was already an impressive and enjoyable factory game experience. Fans of Satisfactory should definitely check this one out. It's not nearly as big of a game, but it's full of solid mechanics coupled with excellent storytelling and exploration and a great ambient soundtrack that I still listen to on its own. There's kind of a glut of factory games lately, but based on my experience with the EA release this one's worthwhile, and it executes well on ideas that help distinguish it.
Technically it's just a minor tweak to the current league + an economy reset. But I'll be there too
I'm thinking of doing "no social media" for a couple of months, what are the best short mobile games I can use on my iphone to replace checking X or Threads for 5 mins at a time? Most recent good game I played is Balatro+ (I have Apple Arcade) but it's not ideal for 1-3-5mins at a time.
If you're at all into boardgames, you could sign up on boardgamearena and start lots of different games and just cycle through them. Although that's probably more of a literal answer than you might be looking for. There's always Suduko and solitaire?
Apple Arcade has a lot of games that will probably keep you occupied for a while.
Dead Cells mobile is also quite fun, just get a physical controller for it as the screen controls are not fun. 8BitDo has a nice little micro gamepad that I've been happy with.
I played it last year for the first time, after ignoring it for a long time because of the reviews and bugs, right after going through ME 1-3 again. Acknowledging some of the still existing jank and performance issues, I think it got a really bad rap for no good reason other than it wasn't the same characters people wanted to play with.
The open world stuff worked pretty well and the vehicle was basically a "this is the Mako but it actually works right" apology. The writing and story was basically on par with other recent Bioware games (I have never had a very high opinion of their writing unlike some, so maybe that helped, it's serviceable). It's basically a pretty good ME flavored game. Depending on what you like about ME it might or might not scratch that itch, since apparently it didn't for a lot of people. I feel kind of the same way about it as DA:Veilguard, it's a Bioware game sticking to all the regular Bioware stuff, as expected. I think a lot of the unhappiness with both is because people have changed and expect different things from games now than they did 20-30 years ago. It's the same thing with Bethesda and Starfield, they made the same game they have been making since Morrowind, but people expected more since we have had multiple generations of other games iterating on those gameplay elements since they were fresh and new. As far as I am concerned All the ME games, DA games, and SWTOR are basically the same thing with a different skin and slightly different combat.
So yeah, Andromeda is pretty good, if you want a semi-open world ME-style game.
I'm gonna recommend a game called "Flow Water". It's that rarest of birds in mobile gaming: a buy once, play forever experience that has added many expansions over the years completely free of charge.
It's a puzzle game that boils down to plumbing water from source to sink using a set of provided conduit pieces. The levels are 3D and the conduits often need to be stacked to create a multilayered plumbing system. It has over 1000 levels, and the variety of mechanics they have introduced keep things fresh for that entire run.
I have only two gripes with the game: first, the difficulty curve is perhaps a bit too forgiving. Every new mechanic they introduce basically resets the curve, and it always takes longer than I think it should to build beyond levels that are trivially obvious to solve. But it's quick to blow through those, and many of the levels are quite tricky.
My second gripe is that there is no conduit piece inventory. All of the pieces start out scattered randomly over the level, and so my first action on any level is to sort all the pieces.
Despite those flaws, I still love the game and would very much recommend it.
It's a FTP, but Genshin Impact probably could keep you occupied for a long while. Heck, you could cycle through all the top FTP games and just jump to the next one when it introduces the grind. Nikke and Honka Star Rail could be on that rotation, too.
The initial parts of those games aren't 1-3 minute adventures, but if you're just going in to knock out a daily event, or advance a single level, that's probably fine.
I also am a big fan of Knittens (It's a pick-3 type) for easy pick up and put down. That's part of Netflix, though.
I've been thinking a lot about this very topic. I don't want to completely abandon the digital world but I would like to find places and activities that aren't full of outrage. I think this deserves its own thread on the forums here. Places to connect to people to discuss mundane or silly topics. Activities such as mobile games to play. Just whatever activities to fill the gaps and preserve our mental health.
I fail at reading comprehension and missed that you already have Apple Arcade. If you’re into Picross style puzzles I like Nonograms Crossme. Lazors is also a simple puzzle game bouncing lasers off of mirrors/splitters into goals.
How about Duolingo? I’m not sure how effective it is at actually teaching languages, but it’s kinda fun, can be done in short bursts, and who knows, you might learn a little bit.
My go-to for this has always been "Threes!", which also has an Apple Arcade version "Threes!+". It's the game 2048 is based on and a more complex variant of it. "Knotwords" (also has a + version on Arcade) as a word game also fills that role for me
Picked this up yesterday finally and played for about 5 hours last night. I can endorse it, super fun, difficult and as someone who watched Battle of Britain about 50000 times growing up, it's just perfect.
All due respect to Genshin in that there's dozens of hours of decent gameplay there before the Gatcha mechanics creep up on you and get irritating.
I'll second that there's a great deal of entertainment to be had in Genshin Impact if you ignore the Gacha mechanics. There's some amazing mountainous climbs and magical vistas to explore, some exciting boss fights, and some more-or-less interesting stories. But like most gacha games, the daily quests and other pressures on your time and attention will eventually wear on your patience.
The NYT Games fill that " a couple of minutes" gaming pretty well.
Non-subscribers get Wordle, Connections, a mini crossword, half of Spelling Bee, and a visual matching game. I subscribe, I think it's $3 a month if you threaten to cancel when your intro is up, and get the full crossword (plus access to the past 30 years of same) and the full Spelling Bee.
Non-subscribers get Wordle, Connections, a mini crossword, half of Spelling Bee, and a visual matching game. I subscribe, I think it's $3 a month if you threaten to cancel when your intro is up, and get the full crossword (plus access to the past 30 years of same) and the full Spelling Bee.
I've been really enjoying Slice & Dice on iOS. Run-based party of adventures vs. groups of monsters, with all kinds of modes and unlocks. The unlocks aren't Legacy style; you just have more options, but also the monsters have more options. But the basic unit of interaction is a fight, and there are 20 fights in a run. Very easy to play just a few fights at a time instead of sitting down and doing a whole 20-fight run.
I did delete it recently, however, because I would spend too many nights doing a few fights before bed and turned into doing a whole run and staying up too late. So, caveat emptor.
Game is 12-fight runs in the "Free" version that gives you a surprisingly playable version of the game with no limits or ads, it's like a $9 unlock for the full game, but it's one and done forever. No online connection needed, no more upgrades, no more payments.
For all you old folks... the video is really cool. This is really pretty
View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3302080/Effulgence/
View: https://store.steampowered.com/app/3302080/Effulgence/
Okay, I've been trying to find a new game to play. I often fall into a depression when I finish a game that I was really into. Normally I set up a game to play after, but I hit then end of Satisfactory a little faster than I expected and forgot to set up another game. The problem is that when I'm down like this, I don't feel like starting anything. But I know that I should.
So today I have gone through my backlog and looked at a lot of my Steam library and chosen a number of games that I can install right now and play. I already own all of these. And I can think of reasons I should play them and reasons I shouldn't. So I'm going to list them here and see if anyone has a suggestion of which one I should do now.
Bully: Scholarship Edition
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Directors Cut
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Scarlet Nexus
Sunset Overdrive
Watch_Dogs
So for Bully, I don't really get the premise. I was always someone who tried to be 'good' and so the game itself doesn't really resonate with me. For Deus Ex, I've played through it multiple times. and the DLC. I'm not sure if the changes to the directors cut are enough of a reason to play it again. For Dragon's Dogma... I know the sequel just came out, but I don't know anything about the game. Not sure if it is worth it or will just make me more down. For Middle-earth: it comes as quite a shock to many of the people who know me, but I'm really not a JRR fan. I find so much of his world building so bland and boring that I can't make it through the books anymore. I'm not saying they are bad, please don't take it personally. I'm just saying it isn't for me. For Scarlet Nexus... I have no idea what this is? Some sort of anime brawler? I don't know where I got this. Sunset Overdrive and Watch_Dogs... I've heard of them. Not sure what the game play is. Not sure if it will absorb me or just annoy me.
I'm also concerned about starting a game now that will put me off in the beginning. Because I don't know that I would put up with that right now. I'd hate to not give a good game a fair shake because I tried starting in in a very annoyed state.
There are a few hundred other games in my backlog, but nothing where the title grabbed me as I was flipping through. Half of them I can't even remember if I played them before or not. Some are games that I've played on console or on physical disc, and I got them on Steam when they went on sale just in case I ever wanted to play them again, so just because the cheevos are blank doesn't mean I haven't played them.
So today I have gone through my backlog and looked at a lot of my Steam library and chosen a number of games that I can install right now and play. I already own all of these. And I can think of reasons I should play them and reasons I shouldn't. So I'm going to list them here and see if anyone has a suggestion of which one I should do now.
Bully: Scholarship Edition
Deus Ex: Human Revolution Directors Cut
Dragon's Dogma: Dark Arisen
Middle-earth: Shadow of Mordor
Scarlet Nexus
Sunset Overdrive
Watch_Dogs
So for Bully, I don't really get the premise. I was always someone who tried to be 'good' and so the game itself doesn't really resonate with me. For Deus Ex, I've played through it multiple times. and the DLC. I'm not sure if the changes to the directors cut are enough of a reason to play it again. For Dragon's Dogma... I know the sequel just came out, but I don't know anything about the game. Not sure if it is worth it or will just make me more down. For Middle-earth: it comes as quite a shock to many of the people who know me, but I'm really not a JRR fan. I find so much of his world building so bland and boring that I can't make it through the books anymore. I'm not saying they are bad, please don't take it personally. I'm just saying it isn't for me. For Scarlet Nexus... I have no idea what this is? Some sort of anime brawler? I don't know where I got this. Sunset Overdrive and Watch_Dogs... I've heard of them. Not sure what the game play is. Not sure if it will absorb me or just annoy me.
I'm also concerned about starting a game now that will put me off in the beginning. Because I don't know that I would put up with that right now. I'd hate to not give a good game a fair shake because I tried starting in in a very annoyed state.
There are a few hundred other games in my backlog, but nothing where the title grabbed me as I was flipping through. Half of them I can't even remember if I played them before or not. Some are games that I've played on console or on physical disc, and I got them on Steam when they went on sale just in case I ever wanted to play them again, so just because the cheevos are blank doesn't mean I haven't played them.
Less effective than taking an actual course with a dedicated instructor. More effective than not touching the foreign language at all. Overall, I like it, and it is one of the things I reach for instead of Reddit and co.
Polytopia is also very good to play a bit, pause, and resume whenever.
I played Bully a bit, I skipped most of the cutscences/story bits. It's GTA except in an expensive boarding school rather than in a big city, as I recall?
Middle Earth:Shadow of Mordor was, to me, Arkham Asylum without the good batman lore bits and no predator mode. And also most (all?) of the collectibles removed. I quickly got tired of going from fight to fight repeatedly without any kind of reason except something-something Sauron something?
Watch_Dogs is a Far Cry game except the antagonist is a faceless corporation that's trying to take over more than just the law enforcement of Chicago. And some "fight the power!" moments. So like Just Cause without the wing suit and no guns (but sci-fi 'hacking' powers), I guess.
I've found it is easier for me to use Duolingo for German than, say, Irish Gaelic. I took German in college, so it helps me refresh, as well as learn new words/phrases. It's much harder for me to get started in a language I don't know well.
Should you though?
There is a legitimate question here, which I will ask and answer for myself; you tell us if this resonates with you at all.
Why do I play games? Three reasons, roughly:
- for entertainment / recreation (there are nuances here, but never mind that for now).
- because I consider them historically significant and want to be able to say that I played them.
- to put new experiences into my brain; my brain might not always be a fan of the idea, but they're good for it. Like broccoli, but for the mind.
1. is self-explanatory. I had a blast with Doom (2016) and I will soon play Doom: Eternal to have even more fun.
2. is Fallout 2, at the moment. I can't honestly say I'm having a lot of fun with it, but it is interesting and I an enjoying the lore and the experience. (Don't take on Wanamingos at level 8. Just don't.)
3., for me, would be something like Cruelty Squad. Do I like the look of it? No, not at all. But 17,304 overwhelmingly positive reviews on Steam can't all be wrong, and after all, how hot can the hot plate really be? Better touch it and find out for sure.
So, what category of experience do you expect your next game to deliver? We might be able to make a recommendation based on that.
I tried to use it to keep my Spanish sharp, but found it had nothing to teach me. I used to be fluent in Spanish and I probably could still pass muster, though I'm pretty rusty at conversing.
Then I tried to see if I could pick up a bit of Japanese. Hard nope. Didn't learn a thing.
So others may have different experiences, but personally I wouldn't expect to get much useful knowledge out of it. It may just be fun to try.
1 and 3. But the key is I need to distract my brain, give it things to think about, and to relax, let off steam. For this reason, any game that is too challenging will frustrate me and cause problems. Also, I don't want a downer game, the kind of game where the good guy dies at the end, and every choice is a bad choice. I've played and enjoyed games that people could argue would fall into one of these categories, but there are exceptions to the rule.
From what the other person said, I'm kind of leaning towards Watch_Dogs. I also have the sequel, so I could go for two games back to back.
I think it's very dependent on your language level. I am conversational with German at best. There are a lot of words I don't know, so I'm able to get some new words that way. Since the foundation of grammar and conjugation is there for me, I can focus on the words (which may not apply to someone who is/was fluent and thus knows more). I find I tend to flub my German because I don't know the word/phrase that I need.
I like the idea of gamifying learning language as a learning method. But I think that it's immersion that really improves language learning and retention. I made more progress in one month of 5+ hours/day of German than I did during two years of a few hours a week. Maybe that's just me, but it got me thinking that I would learn and retain a lot more if I put myself in German-language everything: games, news, books, music, conversations, etc. My interaction with German these days is through music, but I've got a few German books and try to converse with German-speakers when I (rarely) am able to.
My mobile mindless games are Atomas (a matching game using elements. For example, if you match two Hydrogens they are replaced with a Helium Atom) and Marvel Puzze Quest. MPQ is FTP, but there are a lot of ads when you start a session.
My approach to free-to-play games is similar to Terry Pratchett's Nac Mac Feegles' approach to royalty. "Nae king! Nae quinn! Nae free-to-play games! I'll not be fooled again!"
Another game recommendation, of the buy once play forever variety: Flipflop Solitaire. It's a variant of solitaire that relaxes the placement rules that most variants have. Whereas many solitaires forbid placing higher cards on top of lower cards, Flipflop just cares that the number is one away (be it +1 or -1). Whereas many solitaires have rules about what suits can be placed (for example, alternating red and black cards), Flipflop will let you play any suit on any other. However, only runs of a single suit can be moved together.
I've found this set of rules to be extremely enjoyable. It makes it so that very nearly any deal is winnable (I've only encountered a small handful in years of playing that just aren't possible), and it makes it easy to pick up and play while still having depth.
Another game recommendation, of the buy once play forever variety: Flipflop Solitaire. It's a variant of solitaire that relaxes the placement rules that most variants have. Whereas many solitaires forbid placing higher cards on top of lower cards, Flipflop just cares that the number is one away (be it +1 or -1). Whereas many solitaires have rules about what suits can be placed (for example, alternating red and black cards), Flipflop will let you play any suit on any other. However, only runs of a single suit can be moved together.
I've found this set of rules to be extremely enjoyable. It makes it so that very nearly any deal is winnable (I've only encountered a small handful in years of playing that just aren't possible), and it makes it easy to pick up and play while still having depth.
I'm going to be incredibly biased here and say go with Bully. It's easily one of my all-time favorite games, and I will defend it as one of the best games Rockstar ever produced prior to their downward spiral into GTA:O. The premise is not that you play as a bully, but rather that you deal with the various factions of bullies in the school. It's not all that nuanced; the level of influence you gain or lose is mostly connected to the story beats more than any personal action you take, but the main point of the game is that you're an outsider thrust into a boarding school environment and your character wants to try and stop the bullying, for all that it's worth.
Sunset Overdrive is a fun game to play, but the writing is genuinely awful. Put the game on mute and turn on either a podcast or your favorite music playlist, then get lost in what is effectively Jet Set Radio with guns.
Cruelty Squad deserves the accolades it received. Once you get past the visual and audible assault, the actual gameplay is a well-done hybrid of Deus Ex and Hitman and there's a whole lot of neat stuff to discover. Plus, the developer routinely provides content updates.
Frosty Grin
Ars Legatus Legionis
Anime slasher with superpowers and some Persona-style socializing and team building. It's a very solid game, even if you're not entirely into the aesthetic or the teen/young adult protagonists don't seem very relatable to you. The action is frantic, almost on the level of MGR: Revengeance. Feels a bit retro too - no open world here.
Some thoughts on a select few of those:
Bully has you playing as an anti-hero, like most GTAs, but as Neal Stephenson fan HirotheProtagonist said, it's really about you dealing with the other factions of bullies in school. Jimmy isn't really a good kid, but he's not a super huge asshole either (unless you choose to inflict random acts of violence outside of the story). I liked it a lot because it took advantage of its relatively smaller map by fleshing it out and giving it more personality than a contemporary GTA would have. Plus, if you have any fondness for yukking it up around school as a kid, this gives off the same vibes. Lots of hijinx at your disposal.
Sunset Overdrive, in keeping with the theme, is basically a fratboy apocalypse. It's an Insomniac game, so the gameplay's pretty good, from the rail-grinding to the explosive weapons options (none as creative as anything out of Ratchet & Clank though, unfortunately), but the tone is something you'll either like or hate with a passion. There's exclusively collegiate indie punk rock on soundtrack, the factions you deal with are college gang stereotypes, and there's pop culture out the wazoo.
Mordor actually lets you take or leave the Tolkien lore. There is a whole bunch, and the story uses it, of course, but the meat of the game is striding around and lopping orc heads off using a combat system that's pretty much the one from the Batman Arkham games, with a few additions. The Nemesis system is fun to experience if you've never seen it done before, but it's very over-hyped and ends up being a hamster treadmill after a while if it's all you're paying attention to. But it's a decent game, overall.
I never got on much with Watch_Dogs, because it felt like a slog very early on. The sequel was much more fun for me, though you should probably note I haven't finished either of them.
I've already got Watch_Dog installed now, and even the graphics mod installed. I'll give it a shot. I have the sequel ready as well.
Then when I'm done with those (I'm told the game is pretty short) I'll probably try Bully. I wasn't much into GTA. I played GTAIV. Again, the issue is the protagonists don't really vibe with me. But if Jimmy isn't an ass, I'll give it a shot next. That give me something to do for now.
I'll also wishlist Veilguard for when it goes on sale. It sounds like it could be a little fun, but from what I heard the writing is pretty bad.
I’ve heard both, from sources I generally trust. I suspect it’s actually closer to the middle.
New game Empire of the Ants is out now. I haven't got too far into it yet but it's pretty interesting so far. It's not like Sim Ant though it's a bit different. Even better is the book that it is based off of. I'd never heard of it and just started reading it yesterday and I'm already about halfway through. Very, very cool book if you like ants or just something from a different perspective. The game is at least loosely based on the book.
The demo made an extremely good impression. My thoughts on the gameplay was a cross of Pikmin and Total War. I liked it a lot.
It sounds like it's fine, and it's just culture war bullshit.