If you liked Limbo you should definitely try Feist. The gameplay is a bit more gung-ho but it’s a satisfyingly short platformer with a very similar vibe.
I really enjoyed Don’t Starve for a while too. I’m not a big fan of crafting games either but DS makes an engaging game out of it. On the first day you pick berries, craft an axe and chop wood to make a fire, which doesn’t seem like such a triumph but if you’re caught out in the dark for even a second you die and your save game is deleted and the map is wiped and That’s That.
The game does a wonderful job of rewarding you not just for crafting better items but for actually finding stuff out about the demented game world. Any fool can tie two rabbits to a stick to get a pair of fuzzy earmuffs, but if you want a hat that really keeps you warm in winter you’re going to have to work out how to shave a beefalo. You die a lot at first, but each time you learn an important lesson about not dying until you are a grizzled adventurer, like MacGyver but with Tim Burton directing.
It’s one of those games where the gameplay mechanics do a good job of producing random but fun stories. I persuaded some pigs to help me chop wood for winter, it was going well but then a couple of trees decided they didn’t like it very much, so long story short I made myself this sweet pigskin helmet but I kind of had to burn the forest down…
Strictly a PC gamer, never owned a console except for dipping a toe into the DDR craze, since Ebay’d.
I’m five years behind because I refuse to buy any game that isn’t down to less than $20 and has released all its DLC. So, just finished Assassin’s Creed: Unity (rough, but nice-looking and not as horrible as they say), currently working on Batman: Arkham Knight (love the series, sad it’s done, but this one has a tough console-like learning curve, yet SO much content!), and Fallout 4 is probably next.
That’s funny! I’m also a cheap-ass gamer, with minor exceptions. I happen to be finishing up Arkham Knight after playing through Arkham Asylum and Arkham City. I’m working through the challenges now…
I hate paying real money for games, so I’m playing through the Mass Effect trilogy again on this old Xbox360. Never tried playing renegade before, and starting as an adept, just to do things differently for a change.
I hit the Steam sales around New Years and in the summer. This year I got a ton of decent little games for under 5 bucks. Many of them were short, but good storytelling. I really enjoyed What Remains of Edith Finch:
They had the Witcher series of games reduced too. I think you could get a bundle of 1,2,and 3 for like 14 bucks.
I’m a fan of a well crafted walking simulator, and this was a good one. But fuck, was it ever dark and depressing.
I’ve spent the past several weeks playing through Assassin’s Creed Valhalla. It was … ok I guess. I didn’t enjoy it anywhere near as much as Odyssey or Origins and the ending was a convoluted mess (made even more so that it would make zero sense if you missed some optional side content - which I actually played and it was still WTF).
Yakuza 3, 4, 5 are coming to Xbox next week and I plan to start playing 4 soon (I completed 3 on the PS4 before starting in on AC:V). I absolutely adore the series. It’s such a great mix of the serious and absurd and is packed with a ton of engaging content. It’s also surprisingly woke in many ways for being a Japanese Yakuza fantasy (but sadly lacking in others). I have 7 waiting in the queue but I wanted to get through the rest of the series to avoid spoilers.
To pass the time until then, I’ve been playing Katamari Reroll. This is a remaster of the classic Katamari Damacy from the PS2 which I spent a ton of hours playing. It still looks great but the clunky gameplay hasn’t aged particularly well. The sequel We Katamari was really the high watermark of the series and I’d love to see that get a proper remaster (along with Katamari Forever which was pure fan service from start to finish).
It didn’t depress me as much as Dear Esther, and it was a lot more engaging, and such a fleshed-out story. I have heard that Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture is a good one. I really enjoyed Firewatch, too. I am gonna play it again sometime to see how choosing different “choose your own adventure” aspects change the game.
I think what I am actually looking for in walking simulators is a more Myst-like experience. I’d love to find more things like Myst. I got The Talos Principle on the cheap, kind of anxious to play that.
I loved Edith Finch as well, it had a moving story told in ways that kept it interesting but yes, one story in particular was very upsetting. Calling them walking simulators always feels derogatory to me when they’re just interactive stories told in a different way which should be celebrated so i never understand those people who get so angry about them. I would recommend Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture as well, particularly if you’re a Brit of a certain vintage because the details from the era the game is in set are spot on. Also has a stunning score from Jessica Curry.
Don’t do it! Save yourself! It is a really impressive mod though but the developer has been working on it since 2014. Have you tried Portal Stories: Mel? Another incredible mod but I found some of the puzzles incredibly difficult and their solutions not entirely intuitive.
Katamari was really the high watermark of the series and I’d love to see that get a proper remaster (along with Katamari Forever which was pure fan service from start to finish).
