It has been a while since the last one. So…
Tell us what game you are currently, or recently played, greater than 6+ months old.
If the game happens to be on sale, a link would be a plus.
This is a very good time to pick up one or more Fallout game. The release of the show brings sales on the games on multiple platforms
Can confirm, finally got around to starting New Vegas last night because of the show. Barely into it, but off to a decent start.
Stardew Valley. I’m going to marry the fuck out of Abigail. I think I understand waifus now. I love her so much.
Omg Abby, I want her so bad.
The 1.6 update completed the game extremely well. A lot of the quality of life stuff feels incredibly natural, and I’m loving the new farm so far. Especially since it’s forcing me to >!focus on animals instead of Uber optimizing crops!<.
I’m finishing up Saints Row: The Third Remastered. I’m absolutely loving it, and I think I prefer it to GTA V. It’s way less serious, but I actually somewhat care about the characters, unlike with GTA V. The side content is a lot of fun, and it has the turf war mechanic I loved about GTA SA.
I highly recommend it if you haven’t tried it. It’s a bit janky, but there’s a lot of fun to be had imo, just don’t take it too seriously (the game makes that really hard).
Have you gotten the Shark-O-Matic gun yet? It’s hilarious.
I actually skipped over it on accident, so thanks! And yes, it’s absolutely glorious.
The Long Dark.
Survival sim, in an arctic wilderness. It took me two weeks (occasional play only) to trudge through the snow and gather resources to smith some arrowheads for hunting. With that done, food is no longer an issue until my bow wears out. Better scour the forest for the right kind of wood, soon.
I was gifted that game and between my rapidly falling temperature and hunger and my poorly coordinated attempts at stunning baby rabbits, just gave up about 15 mins in. Is it worth it to give it another shot? I’ve tried twice now…
Yes it is worth another try, you can start a custom sandbox to your likings. Can give you a casual experience.
I play a new sandbox every winter, this time with the DLC.
Haha yeah it’s brutal at first. There is a wiki for the game with maps containing spoilers - that really helps.
The trick with rabbits is you watch where they’re going and position yourself infront of them, so they come closer and closer, with no sideways movement. Then they’re easy to hit with a stone.
They don’t yield much meat so you need other sources too. Once you find a revolver (check wiki map) it gets a lot easier because then you hunt wolves instead of them hunting you.
I‘ve only ever played it in Early Access through family sharing and only casually, but if one thing stuck with me then how atmospheric the game was. It‘s kinda meme-y to say but the game really made me feel like I‘m stuck in an abanfoned village in the middle of freezing nowhere.
It is very atmospheric and lonely. So well done.
Long dark is fun as hell.
I just finished portal 1 & 2 for the first time! I was let down on the lore and story. I think if you were around on the internet when portal 2 came out in particular, you might understand. It just had so much reference in pop culture without explanation, i expected there to be more once you had context. I was let down.
That said DAMN these are excellent and fun games that are accessible to any player. The games are designed with fantastic visual clues to help you understand new puzzle elements. They are fun, not challenging to a frustrating degree, and the game is structured where you really can just play a bit before dinner or something.
Yeah, they definitely reached meme status, but they’re really good puzzle games. The story and lore is, interesting I guess, but it’s certainly not the focus of the game.
If you want a puzzle game with more interesting lore, play The Talos Principle. It’s interesting if you’re into philosophy, and it’s still good if you skip the text entries.
Thank you! It’s actually on sale on playstatiom for $5 or free with ps+ extra so I am definitely going to check that out!
Oh that said I haven’t played half life yet and will once I have a computer. Should I also lower my expectations cuz that was also a Big Deal I haven’t gotten the opportunity to play yet!
+1 for The Talos Principle, it’s a very good game - but be warned it is less accessible than Portal. Where Portal gives visual clues to solutions, The Talos Principle actively hides them. Especially the bonus stars can get very hard.
Oooh that sounds fun too now I’m even more excited to try it! And luckily I have no shame googling puzzle solutions if I’m stumped
Yeah, probably. It’s a good game, but the good parts have been copied by many other games.
I recommend playing Black Mesa instead of that original for better graphics and whatnot, and then HL2.
Oooh, and that’s also on sale for $4 right now! Thank you!
Not frustrating until the last level of Portal 1. I still feel bad about never finishing it. But that last level was brutal. Maybe it’s time to dust off my 360 and give it another go.
Has anyone else played Rimworld? I picked it up but feel like Im lost. Ive watched a couple vods and seem to be doing everytjing correctly but idk. Just seems like Im nit advancing or maybe missing something??
I will never stop playing that game. I would suggest playing with “Peaceful” difficulty level at first (and maybe choosing Phoebe Chillax as narrator) so you’ll have time to advance. There’s so much to discover and do anyway without everything trying to burn your house down.
I’ll give that a shot. Thanks for the suggestions!
I loved rimworld when it first came out. I have hundreds of hours. But by the time I was done (before the first dlc came out) I had tons and tons of mods installed. Which is fine. But now there are three dlc that I don’t have and I assume most the mods probably require them. Is that the case?
Most mods shouldn’t require the dlc unless they are based around it. Royalty is very good and add a lot of game play improvements like high tech melee weapons and psi powers. The system around psi powers is innovative and new. Boitech has cool new races with specialities and weakness. You can get very overpower with the right combos. The mechs are super disappointing as their unique drawback toxic waste is extremely had to deal with without cheese until late game when you can magic it away with some difficult to obtain parts. Ideology has fun ideas and roleplaying potential but it’s implemented in a meh way. It’s nice to be able to say my colony doesn’t care about cannibalism or likes nutripaste but it doesn’t add much beyond that. I haven’t played the new horror one. It doesn’t look very good. I’ll see what kind of reviews it gets.
I’ve got way to many hours in rimworld.
Some tips.
Psychic shock lances are must haves. You can’t make them but they are easy to buy from traiders and settlements. Two uses and they are gone but so worth it. They cost about 600 with two uses so 300 a zap. Here are some great ways to use them.
Raider with a great set of skills and traits. Zap him and stockholm syndrom him. Raider with nice very expensive armor. Zap and strip. You just spent 300 silver to buy a few thousand worth of armor and removed a strong enemy. And it doesn’t have the tainted trait because he didn’t die. Raider with a mini gun or doomsday launcher. Zap now you have it and they don’t. Raider grabbed one of your pawns and leaving the map. Zap.
Insanity Lance is also good. Notably against any pawns with a rocket launcher. Have it shot it’s friends. Or a good meele raider. Zap and the raiders are dealing with it while you are getting in position.
Both are consumables that you have to find or buy but are so profitable and can save your bacon.
You can pause and see all stats and equipment. When raiders show up check for pawns with skills you need or dangerous weapons like doomsday launchers.
Home zone is also where they clean. Turn it off in areas you don’t need cleaned like crops. This saves a ton of pawn time. It’s also where they fight fires. So you need to add it back when there is a fire.
If you are using mods complex jobs is a great choice. It breaks down jobs into more categories. So for example anyone can tend wounds but only good doctors can do surgery.
Combat keeps ramping up if you don’t take losses and as you gain wealth. So you can end up with a very brittle base where any attack that can hurt you also is a almost total wipe. Look up kill box designs. They are almost required.
If you don’t have a kill box. Having a pawn in armor and a shield belt with a smoke launcher firing at it behind cover is great in combat. Put it just in front of your shooters. The raiders shot at it and it doesn’t take much if any damage. Letting your shooter pawns fire away.
If you want other tips let me know or check out Francis John. He has good guides and some of his playthroughs are great. I recommend the tribal wizards playthrough for fun.
When that poor pawn gets stuck in Australia having to wall him self in to hide from the mechs, raiders, and bugs. Rebuilding the wall from the inside as they chew at it from the outside.
when starting a new game:
-set up a stockpile:
indoors, preferably shelves, but that’s a goal to work towards
-stockpile some food:
starting with a talented grower makes early game easier. rice is best in the beginning, when it’s beginning to stockpile switch to potatoes, when those stockpile to corn. each step requires less work by your pawns, leaving more time for other stuff.
-get a ranged weapon and some defenses
some bows if there’s nothing else. first raid is alwaysa single melee guy, that’s scripted, afaik. setup some sand bags or embrasures. walls/corridors to limit the range enemies can shoot at you.
-get batteries
super important! difficult to have a reliable food supply without those!
-get a freezer
also super important because of the above!
-set up a prison
last on the list, not that high of a priority…but still, get some more people!
and then do pretty much what you want…once early game is done, get some research done, plant some cotton, some herbal meds, set up a little medical area, etc.
this should get you to mid game fairly reliably!
You misunderstand potatos. Rice and corn both have high sensitivity to soil quality. Potatos have low sensitivity. So with normal or better soil rice and corn both get a big speed boost and potatos get a small speed boost.
With poor soil rice and corn get a big speed penalty potatos get small speed penalty.
So normal or better soil plant rice or corn. Poor soil plant potatos.
you are right!
i did actually forget about that when commenting, and thanks for the added info!
however, that’s not exactly what i was talking about:
assuming normal or better soil you need less work (i.e. time spent working the fields) per unit of nutrition when moving from rice->potato->corn because of yield.
so your pawns spend less time planting and harvesting, which results in higher overall colony productivity since they can do other stuff in-between, like cooking, cleaning, mining, etc.
you are correct in that you should choose which plant you use based on the soil first, and according to productivity second!
i just wasn’t really considering soil quality when writing the comment…
Rimworld is great! But don’t forget to do research. Most of the early game is building yourself toward having a kitchen and functional refrigeration room. Along with trying to give colonists their own rooms and furniture.
Just make sure to take care of everyone’s needs!
Playing Cyberpunk 2077, it’s sometimes a little unintuitive. You’re thrown into a world that doesn’t explain anything about what’s going on and is filled with so much stuff, but in general a really good game.
Dunno whether this counts (free full game, no DLC, 10+ years old) but I’m loving battle for wesnoth. Some dialogue is stunted but it’s among the best hex grid strategy games I’ve played.
That game’s closer to 20+ years old. It’s been a very long time since I’ve played it. It was way back when gaming on Linux was mostly limited to games that had a native Linux release.
I knew about its initial release but had no clue whether it was the same team or an offshoot so I settled for a safe 10 years.
I recommend picking it back up if you enjoyed the campaigns. It’s just recently reached a third renaissance with an abundance of new fan content. No clue why.
My bet, A youtuber discovered the game and made videos that did reasonably well in the indie audience, then other youtubers picked up and it snowballed some. I’ve been seeing more coverage of the game on youtube for a couple of years now.
I’ve played Wesnoth and had quite a bit of fun, but what makes it the best hex grid strategy game for you?
It tends not to dawdle and is open to customization. Want a map? Make it. Want a unit? Make it. If you really want to get obsessive about any aspect then the option is available. Top it off with surprisingly nice art, a good community, and a sprinkle of nostalgia and you get a spicy pizza pie.
I just bought Brotato on Steam. Shits fun af. It’s like a roguelike but with no learning curve and literally anybody can play, but the higher levels are still difficult.
I just found out there was a series off “Wallace and Gromit” adventure games from Telltale (RIP)
bought them all on steam and playing the first episode now. So far the writing and visuals are spot on
I love Telltale. I heard they were actually still working on Wolf Among Us 2 but progress is slow and they have no date set.
https://gamerant.com/the-wolf-among-us-2-development-update-telltale-deck-nine/
Awesome! That’s going straight on my wishlist, and I’ll probably pick it up the next time I need a game to play.
Link for the lazy to the one I found (W&G Grand Adventure). Are there more?
I just started a new Fallout 4 playthrough after binging the show, and my wife hopped back into Fallout Shelter. I guess they added the show characters to FS so that’s fun.
Playing Planescape: Torment for the first time, amazing game though the rather dated interface can get tiresome.
The game funnels you into playing as a mage with high charisma so you can avoid the clunky combat as much as possible. Be warned though, the last 20 mins of the game can be quite hard if you’ve only specced your character to be good at speech.
The Witness.
It feels especially relevant to this community because I’m picking it up again after a hiatus of over five years. I tried back then but got hard stuck on a puzzle that I just didn’t get, and I refused to look up the answer and spoil the joy of discovery for myself.
Anyway, playing it is 2024, after walking around for 30 minutes to refresh myself, I was able to solve almost instantly 😅 so now I’m back into the game and loving it!
It’s a quintessential patient game, with its slow pace (including the walking pace - glacial when compared to action games), and puzzles that you can puzz over in between sessions (even for years like in my case).
I told this story to a friend, and they asked “so did this puzzle take you 30 minutes to solve, or 6 years?” Which is a thought!
Sometimes coming back to things with a fresh mind can give quite the new perspective
The game remained the same – it was I who had changed.
Stardew Valley and Kingdom Come Deliverance are the two big ones at the moment. I’ve played both a bit at a time for a while now.
Stardew Valley needs little introduction. It’s a beautiful gem of an indie game. I’m in fall of year two and just getting used to married life and making that sweet sweet gold making wine and jelly.
Kingdom Come Deliverance is an awesome RPG in a non-fantasy medieval setting. You’re the son of a blacksmith and your town is burned by a massive army leaving you a refugee seeking to avenge your parents. You’re no war hero or chosen one, just a man trying to find his place in the beautiful but uncertain world…and maybe learn to read while he’s at it
I recently replayed the entire Arkham series, including Origins.
They all still hold up incredibly well (maybe Asylum a tiny bit less, it was the first one and it feels a little clunky when you’re coming right off of City or Knight), the acting is timeless, the stories feel like classic Batman tales… They’re just perfect Batman games; and damn near perfect games just in general.
Yeah anyone wanting to get into the series should begin with asylum. It’s got a more horror vibe which I think holds up incredibly well still.
But the other games are mechanically better, so it’s hard to go backwards and enjoy it quite as much
