Stardew valley is passing my expectations tenfold. I thought it was just a farming simulator with terraria combat but nooo. I find myself genuinely wanting to make meaningful relationships with the townsfolk and not wanting to “min max best strat” like I normally do with videogames
I love Stardew Valley but I do tend to struggle with this. Frequently, I find myself slipping into checklist mode ("gotta give a quartz to this person, run over to Clint to get cracking, get back in time to get the iron out").
It is super satisfying to design a cool farm, though!
I had this too. I decided that I'll get the max rating from Grampa and the everything will calm down, but after reaching that point in game I was sort of burnt out and stopped playing.
Also I never could get into the island part of the game. I felt like I abandoned what I worked for all that time!
SDV is great. A lot of people complain that it does make them go crazy over minmaxing and time optimization, but I never had that experience personally.
I know you should and any game like that usually has 1 optimized route but it’s fun just letting go and enjoying the ride.
After I was done with the game (hundreds of hours with my gf in coop), I was convinced the town‘s just a big mental asylum lol, highly recommend
You might like Dinkum or Sun Haven as well.
I was surprised how much time I put into it. It is a nice and relaxing way to unwind after a day of work. I like the fact you can play a t in short bursts too if needed.
I'm emulating it on yuzu on the deck, it started as a trial see how the emulator ran and it just sucked me in 😆
Buy it on steam!
I imagine it might be better on battery life if it’s natively being ran too haha
Few months ago I played Hyper Light Drifter on my Steamdeck and it was an almost revelatory experience. I don't usually spend too much time with that sort of game but it absolutely drew me in and I finished it inside a few nights.
What did you like about it?
I remember playing it in 2017 and one day I stopped and never went back to it, but I don't remember if I liked it or not. The music and the art style is gorgeous though. It's one of the few games I have bought the OST for
Honestly I don't really know. The game feels really tight and I found that just moving the guy around the screen was enjoyable. Obviously the visuals don't hurt either.
It had a little bit of Tunic in it too (or I guess Tunic had a bit of HLD in it), which is apparently something I absolutely need in my games going forward.
Going to download it on my steamdeck soon and try it out
Thanks!
Papers, Please just turned ten recently. It's a simple concept (just check the papers!) getting progressively more difficult as you get further. The bleak setting with the colours and music gives that very "nice" 50's soviet vibes. Definitely recommended.
The Walking Dead: The Telltale Definitive Series
The first game was fantastic, the subsequent releases during Telltale's pre-insolvency era were subjective. Personally they are a great series and its -70% off at fanatical atm.
Definitely good stuff. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
NieR Replicant - finished a month or two ago and it was a lot of fun. It did get pretty repetitive in parts, but the story was quite good, so I think it's worth putting the time in.
Ittle Dew - one of the few games that made me want to replay it upon finishing. It has so much charm that it's just a joy to play. I'm guessing the sequel is similarly great (will probably play soon).
The Bridge - I saw it recommended here recently, and it's a fun, clever puzzles game.
Just finished playing Hypnospace Outlaw, a point and click adventure where you navigate the 90s webspace and act as enforcer. Made me very nostalgic about my experience with the web and computers growing up, and has a great little story to it too!
Would recommend to any 90s kids. And it’s on sale!
I just finished Yoku's Island Express, and I never thought a blend of pinball and platforming would work so well, but it's great.
Nice, that's been on my list for a while, I'll have to play it soon. :)
I‘ve come back to Mini Motorways and it‘s still just so good. After failing an attempt the slow first ten minutes of a map drive me insane though.
I made a small AHK script for myself to be able to play the game just with the mouse (speed up/pause on side buttons).
I recently rediscovered Rollcage Redux and Rollcage Extreme.
Updates to the originals so they play nice with modern hardware and also "free".
Stranded Sails was a small game but incredibly tight and very satisfying. I don't usually 100% a game, but I did on this one because it's all meat, no filler.
I’m replaying Dark Souls III at the moment, and it’s every bit as good as I remember. I’m currently going through the Ashes of Ariandel DLC for the first time, as I’ve only ever played the base game before. Highly recommended
Nier Automata for its complex merging of storytelling and game mechanics, kickass soundtrack, and fun gameplay. The camera leaves a little to be desired, but still a game that has stuck with me years after finishing it.
Astroneer was a really nice and sweet space adventure that I would definitely recommend to casual players, the mechanics are simple to understand and it let's you take your own pace to discover and figure out it's world and progress through the stories scattered about the universe
Recently got an update to tweak world settings to make it easier or harder, like removing the need for oxygen and all, and with how tactile everything feels, this might also be a nice recommendation to a younger audience too!
It's a bit expensive (30eur for us Europeans) and still has a few major bugs like structures falling through thin floors on save load and stuff but overall was a great experience for me and my BF to run through
I enjoyed Astroneer as a casual exploration game. It also played well in co-op (4 players).
Note: the Steam and Microsoft Store versions do not have crossplay unless you rent a dedicated server from one of the two official providers (which does bump it up to 8 players at least)
X3:TC?
It's a very acquired taste, but it's unique in the already niche genre of space sims
I picked up the Talos Principle - not done with it yet but enjoying it, reminds me a little bit of portal with just less polished art direction
The Outer Worlds. It's certainly a nice ride. A bit quirky at parts. It has a different take on Cyberpunk/dystopic capitalism than e.g. Cyberpunk 2077. Much more realistic and close to what could actually happen. It takes it with humor though, albeit it still hurts sometimes since it is just a bit too close to reality. Combat is fun. I can certainly recommend it!
Homeworld Deserts of Kharak is the free game from the Epic store this week and I found it very enjoyable.
I picked up 428 Shibuya Scramble for the visual novel fest on Steam. I'm really enjoying it and I think it holds up surprisingly well for its age.
A gaming community free from the hype and oversaturation of current releases, catering to gamers who wait at least 12 months after release to play a game. Whether it's price, waiting for bugs/issues to be patched, DLC to be released, don't meet the system requirements, or just haven't had the time to keep up with the latest releases.
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