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Background: I'm a chronic min/max-er in almost every game that I play. In MMOs, I'll play FOTM classes or follow build guides to the letter. I'll spend time trying to get the optimal graphics settings. To me, there has always been "a right way" to play a class, the game, etc. And that thinking has worn. me. down. I've realized that it's less about trying to be good at the game and more about offloading the cognitive load that comes with learning complicated game systems onto someone else. --- I'm one of those people who loves a good challenge (favorite games include Bloodborne, Elden Ring, and Hollow Knight), and I'm currently playing Helldivers 2 while waiting for FF7 Rebirth to come out. Between the action in those games and the inability to just let myself relax, I'm just looking for a game that isn't mindless, but...mindful? Something I can play that's "cozy" and relaxing, but also engaging and purposeful. Enter one of my other favorite games: Stardew Valley. While you can choose to min/max, it never feels like you have to. In fact, it never feels like you "have" to do anything. It never feels like I'm playing the game "wrong" somehow; investing time in doing one thing that I enjoy it doesn't have drastic negative consequences or catch-up elsewhere. Yes, maybe I won't grow the most valuable crops if I just want to fish, but the fish sells for money that I can use to still improve the farm in a different way. If I want to fish, I can fish; if i want to farm, I can farm. The problem with Stardew Valley is that my partner enjoys it for the same reasons, and we've played it to death. I'm also trying to find a game that I can play on my own. So, all of this might be a stretch, but I'm hoping someone can recommend me a game or games that will help me relax with the following wishlist:
People have recommended Animal Crossing: New Horizons to me, but, even though I haven't played it, that game just screams "grind" to me. I know that's probably a lot to ask for, but I'm really hoping for some recommendations to help me unwind.
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Feb 24, 2024 03:08
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Slime Rancher seems like an okay fit.
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Feb 24, 2024 03:19
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Islands of Insight is just free form puzzle solving with no real demands in a nice environment with other players running about. Eastshade maybe? Meadow or Book of Travels fez_machine fucked around with this message at 03:48 on Feb 24, 2024 |
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Feb 24, 2024 03:42
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Lunchmeat Larry posted:Dwarf Fortress is probably close. You can even dip into Adventure Mode using your own fortress (I think we're getting the big adventure mode update soon?) for that Mount and Blade feeling of stepping among what you've built up I think that's coming in March! Can't wait!
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Feb 24, 2024 03:55
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Thanks for the feedback, checking out The Riftbreaker now and also looking at some of the games people recommended Fat Samurai as that bit about the scale changing definitely resonated with me.
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Feb 24, 2024 04:03
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No Man's Sky is very low stakes exploration, gathering, mild combat. Heavily updated since launch. A great chilling game. Might be graphically intensive though. Would second Eastshade as a relaxing painting / walking simulator. Maybe Potion Craft? There's no real fail state. You just gather ingredients, make potions, and sell them to customers.
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Feb 24, 2024 04:27
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A Short Hike is the chillest game out there that I always like to recommend, but it's very short. It even has a setting for pixel size depending on how crisp or crunchy you want your graphics. Maybe Subnautica?I feel like out of all the survival/crafting games, it doesn't really reward grinding and stockpiling much unless you really get into building your undersea fortress for the sake of it. Whether or not you'll find the game chill depends more on your personal perspective on the sea (and sea monsters), but there's something really neat about the raw feeling of exploration that you don't get in a procedural world. Spiritfarer is pretty chill and relatively freeform even though it'll push you along a story, and there's a whole thing of building a community on your boat as you go along collecting resources, doing quests, finding new islands. It might hit you in the emotions at some point though. Maybe you'd have a nice time with a more linear game that you can just kinda keep plugging away at. The original Plants vs. Zombies goes at a fairly leisurely pace and doesn't really get too complicated.
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Feb 24, 2024 05:59
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I was wondering if anyone has a recommendation for the best top-down Diablo-ish ARPG with really satisfying, juicy and impactful combat feedback and effects. I'm talking hits that really feel and sound like they're physically connecting and making enemies react by reeling away or exploding into gibs, slower animations that have great anticipation wind-ups to really sell the power behind the move, distinct and vibrant sound and graphics to make every skill feel special and crackle with energy, and so on. It feels like a lot of these ARPGs turn you into this lighting-fast animation-cancelling insta-cast spammy character that carves through goons like a hot knife through butter, and while that certainly has an appeal and I enjoy games like that, a lot of the times it can feel so frictionless, so unimpactful, and I was wondering if there were some that go another way. Another option is perhaps a certain class in an ARPG that really sells this aspect more so than the others. The best example I can probably think of is Lost Ark: just check out the Sorceress skills as an example https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=00j9gJdiUR4
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Feb 24, 2024 06:43
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FutureCop posted:I was wondering if anyone has a recommendation for the best top-down Diablo-ish ARPG with really satisfying, juicy and impactful combat feedback and effects. I'm talking hits that really feel and sound like they're physically connecting and making enemies react by reeling away or exploding into gibs, slower animations that have great anticipation wind-ups to really sell the power behind the move, distinct and vibrant sound and graphics to make every skill feel special and crackle with energy, and so on. It feels like a lot of these ARPGs turn you into this lighting-fast animation-cancelling insta-cast spammy character that carves through goons like a hot knife through butter, and while that certainly has an appeal and I enjoy games like that, a lot of the times it can feel so frictionless, so unimpactful, and I was wondering if there were some that go another way. Another option is perhaps a certain class in an ARPG that really sells this aspect more so than the others. Warhammer 40K Inquisitor: Martyr is pretty good about this, and just got a large update. Really chunky and heavy guns and explosives, limited area destruction, impactful skills and melee abilities. Basically what you'd expect from 40k. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MmsU4oL0Bv8
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Feb 24, 2024 07:08
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FutureCop posted:I was wondering if anyone has a recommendation for the best top-down Diablo-ish ARPG with really satisfying, juicy and impactful combat feedback and effects. I'm talking hits that really feel and sound like they're physically connecting and making enemies react by reeling away or exploding into gibs, slower animations that have great anticipation wind-ups to really sell the power behind the move, distinct and vibrant sound and graphics to make every skill feel special and crackle with energy, and so on. It feels like a lot of these ARPGs turn you into this lighting-fast animation-cancelling insta-cast spammy character that carves through goons like a hot knife through butter, and while that certainly has an appeal and I enjoy games like that, a lot of the times it can feel so frictionless, so unimpactful, and I was wondering if there were some that go another way. Another option is perhaps a certain class in an ARPG that really sells this aspect more so than the others. So, while I can't speak for it personally, some friends of mine have been trying to get me into Last Epoch. It just launched version 1.0 on Steam this week, and people have compared it favorably to Path of Exile and Diablo 4 if you were dissatisfied with those. After watching this YouTube video on picking a class, the Void Knight, Lich, and Necromancer classes look interesting enough for me to pick it up eventually: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdSD0bNDnq4 Again, no personal experience with this one, and I think the servers might be getting slammed, but it could be worth a look. I wish that Lost Ark had turned out differently for me. The gatekeeping is ridiculous.
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Feb 24, 2024 14:58
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garfield hentai posted:I've tried out Factorio and Dyson Sphere Program and while I really like the concept and feeling of starting really small and scrounging for supplies and building and iterating until I have huge planet-spanning enterprise going on, the actual nuts and bolts of the gameplay where I'm setting up conveyors and robotic grabby arms and stuff feels annoyingly fiddly and tedious for me. Any suggestions for games - not necessarily in the same genre or anything - that give a similar feeling of starting with nothing and spiraling into something ridiculous? Starsector where you start with a single ship and end up with colonies or (with a mod) conquering the entire sector, or Bannerlod (same in a medieval setting)?
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Feb 24, 2024 18:43
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fez_machine posted:Islands of Insight is just free form puzzle solving with no real demands in a nice environment with other players running about. Can you tell me more about Book of Travels? I saw a video about it and it seems like a very unique game, but I'm also a bit weary of the negative reviews saying it's unnecessarily frustrating. I respect the artistic vision, but I'm trying to figure out if I'd actually want to play it
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Feb 24, 2024 19:56
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grate deceiver posted:Can you tell me more about Book of Travels? I saw a video about it and it seems like a very unique game, but I'm also a bit weary of the negative reviews saying it's unnecessarily frustrating. I respect the artistic vision, but I'm trying to figure out if I'd actually want to play it Yeah, I've never played it, so I can't give you a first hand account. It's a perma wish listed game, because I'm highly attracted to the idea of the game but have no idea if it'd be fun to play at the moment.
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Feb 24, 2024 19:58
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Sandwich Anarchist posted:Warhammer 40K Inquisitor: Martyr is pretty good about this, and just got a large update. Really chunky and heavy guns and explosives, limited area destruction, impactful skills and melee abilities. Basically what you'd expect from 40k. Hmm, maybe I'll try giving Martyr a go. I imagine the best class to go with would be the Crusader? GunblazeGriffin posted:So, while I can't speak for it personally, some friends of mine have been trying to get me into Last Epoch. Yeah, was wondering if Last Epoch might be a good fit, being the new fancy kid on the block. I watched some videos and it seems alright, but some of the attacks that I thought would be really beefy and good came off feeling limp, like the Smelter's Wrath for Forge Guards, but then again they've got some other moves that look nice, like the Shaman's Fury Leap. Probably just need to pick the right class. And yeah, as much as I want to love Lost Ark because of its combat, it definitely loses me with all the drat gearing and gatekeeping and such-and-such, ugh. It's a real Monkey's Paw wish of a game: it's got great combat and great boss fights, but buried under a pile of Korean MMO grind.
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Feb 25, 2024 06:44
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FutureCop posted:Hmm, maybe I'll try giving Martyr a go. I imagine the best class to go with would be the Crusader? Depends on what you want. If you want exclusively melee yeah
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Feb 25, 2024 07:14
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Deakul posted:Hey this is going to be a real long shot but does anyone know of any newer(~20 years) games like Triplane Turmoil? It's not traditional planes etc, but Highfleet has a very cool take on this, a strategic map for planning skirmishes, you fuel / repair at cities and purchase munitions, and it has 2d side-scrolling combat engagements. Here's a playthrough to see a feel of the gameplay: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCHO66KtQKc
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Feb 25, 2024 17:06
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Sleeping dogs is on sale on gog again. I am recommending it to you, yes you.
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Feb 25, 2024 21:14
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ilmucche posted:Sleeping dogs is on sale on gog again. I am recommending it to you, yes you. SHUT UP YOU'RE NOT MY REAL DAD
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Feb 25, 2024 21:25
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sleep the dogs
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Feb 25, 2024 21:34
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Slurping Dongs.
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Feb 25, 2024 22:13
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Pork bun craving intensifies.
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Feb 25, 2024 22:23
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GunblazeGriffin posted:Background: I'm a chronic min/max-er in almost every game that I play. https://store.steampowered.com/app/374190/Infernax/ Infernax is a pretty fun indie "castlevania II" or "Zelda II" style game, that isn't too long, has enough challenge to make you feel like you are accomplishing things, and a entertaining 2 player mode with alternate characters, might fit the bill
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Feb 26, 2024 00:23
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Hey guys, I'm looking for something to facilitate my reading habit. To be more accurate: I played a lot of World of Tanks this winter, and the way it works is that you have 15min matches, and if you get killed early you have to wait until the match is over. This gave me plenty of time to pick up a book or alttab out and read while waiting. The negative thing is that WoT tends to take over my life and I got bored of it. So, what I'm looking for is a game with lots of downtime that doesn't require fast-twitch reflexes. More or less any genre would be fine
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Mar 1, 2024 14:07
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you could probably just read the book on its own, without waiting on a bad game
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Mar 1, 2024 14:38
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Evig Vandrar posted:Hey guys, I'm looking for something to facilitate my reading habit. A-Train PC Classic - sort of like Sim City, but rather than building the whole city you own a transportation company and set up train tracks and manage the routes (also busses and streetcars, but trains are the main focus). The town grows dynamically over time in response to the transportation routes you set up, so you can do something like set up a small passenger route + material delivery to a harbor outside of the city, and over time it'll get more and more traffic as the town around the docks builds up. Because of the nature of the game, you'll sometimes hit situations where your routes are all set up the way you want them and the best thing to do is just let the trains run for a year to build up cash and see how the town develops. Normally you'd fast forward through that, but it would also make for a good time to read something and let time pass in the background. It also has a feature where you can ride your trains in first person, if you want the immersive book reading experience. Obscure indie gem Dark Souls - I actually used it for pretty much exactly this in college, I had gimmicky coop characters and I'd put my symbol down for coop, do homework for a bit, and then take a break to play when someone summoned me. Relies on the game having the right level of activity though, you might want to ask in one of the souls threads to see which game would work best.
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Mar 1, 2024 15:43
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Any game with fishing, which these days is pretty much any game
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Mar 1, 2024 16:28
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Snake Maze posted:A-Train PC Classic - sort of like Sim City, but rather than building the whole city you own a transportation company and set up train tracks and manage the routes (also busses and streetcars, but trains are the main focus). The town grows dynamically over time in response to the transportation routes you set up, so you can do something like set up a small passenger route + material delivery to a harbor outside of the city, and over time it'll get more and more traffic as the town around the docks builds up. Because of the nature of the game, you'll sometimes hit situations where your routes are all set up the way you want them and the best thing to do is just let the trains run for a year to build up cash and see how the town develops. Normally you'd fast forward through that, but it would also make for a good time to read something and let time pass in the background. It also has a feature where you can ride your trains in first person, if you want the immersive book reading experience. The Dark Souls 2 community is currently having their annual Return to Drangleic event so that'd be the best choice for some jolly cooperation right now.
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Mar 1, 2024 16:33
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Evig Vandrar posted:Hey guys, I'm looking for something to facilitate my reading habit. this is what I do with iRacing, any other racing sim might work. There's an entire genre called idle/incremental games that are perfect for this. Melvor Idle is my fav but pick whichever one suits you. but my biggest suggestion is also to second the poster above and just read a book without a video game.
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Mar 1, 2024 20:31
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Replace your SSD with a lovely mechanical hard drive e: looks like you can still get 4200 RPM drives for notebooks 
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Mar 1, 2024 21:00
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Kvlt! posted:this is what I do with iRacing, any other racing sim might work. iRacing works best because depending on your pleasure, you might be waiting a week for your next race
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Mar 1, 2024 21:01
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The General posted:iRacing works best because depending on your pleasure, you might be waiting a week for your next race Then I think it's not suitable. I believe the 15-minute break is critical because it's a time slot that cannot be used for anything but reading (more on this later). Over the course of a week he'd just do other things. And the "just read a book!" replies miss the point in the same way. Yeah, an adult should have the concentration ability to just read a book, and it's absolutely worth working on that, but the can already thank God he's in the 1% of first-worlders who aren't addicted to phone scrolling instead. So if he already has a habit where his 15-minute downtime is spent reading instead of giggling at memes or smoking or snacking, probably safer to keep it. Incremental games I think are worth a shot, as long as the rate of interaction required is roughly along those lines. They're not my genre at all, but I will recommend trying Universal Paperclips as it's free as well as a small, beautiful work of art - don't look up anything about the game because it's best experienced unspoiled, and even Wikipedia spoils the concept in the very first paragraph. Otherwise, I'm gonna suggest finding an old, near-dead multiplayer game that appeals to you. For obvious reasons developers try to avoid downtime, but when a game has a sufficiently low number of concurrent players you'll end up with reasonably long matchmaking timers.
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Mar 4, 2024 14:25
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NihilCredo posted:Then I think it's not suitable. I believe the 15-minute break is critical because it's a time slot that cannot be used for anything but reading (more on this later). Over the course of a week he'd just do other things. You got me to play paperclips again. Good job.
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Mar 4, 2024 20:41
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I've been playing a lot of Bomberman (mostly Saturn Bomberman and Bomberman Max) and before that Metal Gear Solid, and now I got a craving for slow paced, maybe even clunky, action games where you have to be very deliberate when handling enemies. What I like about these games is having my brain adapt to style of gameplay, or complicated controls. I've realized that being able to "get good" and understand the mechanics of a game is a lot of fun and right now I'm looking for more originality than polish or ease-of-use In Metal Gear Solid by the end of the game I was styling on enemies using C4, mines, and Nikitas just for fun, so I'll definitely be checking out VR missions. Tenchu is on the list as well, though I'm not sure if thats really one of the games I'm looking for. I tried out Trap Gunner last night and it was ok for 20 minutes but it only has quick one-on-one fights which limits it for me. Are any of the Deception games good? I just remembered the game Gain Ground, which is also a great example of what I'm looking for. That game is kind of like a schmup, but you have to adapt to being slow as poo poo and your projectiles have weird patterns that you can take advantage of. Great game if you like clunk-action.
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Mar 4, 2024 21:01
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Fighting Elegy posted:Tenchu is on the list as well, though I'm not sure if thats really one of the games I'm looking for. It....might be? But, if it's not, definitely look up the code to access its debug mode, which lets you play as a cat that shits grenades (or any sprite in the game, baaically) and also enables a splitscreen PvP mode (and yeah, you can combine those elements.) It was a very good game at the time, but debug mode multiplayer was some of the most fun you could have on a PS1.
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Mar 4, 2024 21:50
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Fighting Elegy posted:I've been playing a lot of Bomberman (mostly Saturn Bomberman and Bomberman Max) and before that Metal Gear Solid, and now I got a craving for slow paced, maybe even clunky, action games where you have to be very deliberate when handling enemies. It's not an action series, but this otherwise makes me think of 
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Mar 5, 2024 01:40
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Fighting Elegy posted:I've been playing a lot of Bomberman (mostly Saturn Bomberman and Bomberman Max) and before that Metal Gear Solid, and now I got a craving for slow paced, maybe even clunky, action games where you have to be very deliberate when handling enemies. There's Thief: The Dark Project and its sequels, and the still active modding community for it (an unofficial expansion to the first game was released last year). You have to be deliberate about dealing with enemies: Your goal is to escape each level with the loot and mission objective items. If you can do that without even being spotted, you get a bonus. Information on modding can be found on the Through The Looking Glass forums, the games themselves can be bought on Good Old Games.
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Mar 5, 2024 06:21
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Evig Vandrar posted:Hey guys, I'm looking for something to facilitate my reading habit. The hunter call of the wild. Go sit in a hunting blind and read your book, occasionally looking up to realise the tracks on the ground mean you missed the animal walking by. Or have their walking distract you from the book
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Mar 5, 2024 07:09
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Fighting Elegy posted:I've been playing a lot of Bomberman (mostly Saturn Bomberman and Bomberman Max) and before that Metal Gear Solid, and now I got a craving for slow paced, maybe even clunky, action games where you have to be very deliberate when handling enemies. It's 3DS eshop exclusive so not the most accessible, but this makes me think of Kokuga, a shmup where you control a relatively slow moving tank. You have to rotate the turret manually to line up your shots, and your rate up fire is very slow, but your shots are strong and pierce through most enemies. It ends up feeling very different than most shmups, it's a lot of fun.
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Mar 5, 2024 16:58
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looking for a game/games to listen to music/podcasts to. My go to game for this is Pro Evolution Soccer but I've played it to death at this point. What I liked about it for this purpose though: no story no important audio in the game good gameplay and replayability decent progression (I liked playing manager mode, buying/selling players and improving the squad and stuff) simple enough that I could pay attention to the music/podcast while playing I guess the obvious answer is other sports games, but I don't like most other sports that much
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Mar 6, 2024 07:07
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Paperhouse posted:looking for a game/games to listen to music/podcasts to. My go to game for this is Pro Evolution Soccer but I've played it to death at this point. What I liked about it for this purpose though: I'm using the Logistical series for this at the moment.
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Mar 6, 2024 07:18
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