The Wolf Among Us, and I imagine other Telltale games (but that’s the only one I played so far). It felt a lot like Life is Strange in gameplay and storytelling, even though it’s also a lot different.
In a similar vein, point and click adventure games like The Whispered World, The Book of Unwritten Tales, or Syberia. The modern ones usually don’t have a failure state (as opposed to the infamous Sierra games), but unlike LiS you may get stuck on a puzzle.
I also realise I’m giving a lot of time to games that, if only I could manage my time better I could give to much more worthwhile things, like helping people out in the world. So a month ago a few life circumstances came together, and I’ve signed up for a new education course. Rather than cope with all the new stresses of that at the same time as possible gaming withdrawal symptoms, I figured I’d give up the games completely, a month early. (And doomscrolling too, but that’s proving harder… proving it’s also addictive to me more than I wanted to admit!)
This doesn’t strike me as a healthy perspective on yourself
My point isn’t to refute your concern for your addictive tendencies with regards to video games but rather to gravely warn you that your fear and self doubt (which are valid) will be preyed on by a whole cottage industry of shitty people selling you fake solutions until you learn the actual science with regards to humans and games (digital or not) from people like Dr. Rachel Kowert.
Have you tried sandbox-like games, or just games that basically have no story line? Or is the more “adventuring” type of gameplay the one you enjoy the most? Personally I seem to find most games kinda boring outside puzzlegames and sandbox-things, since the typical stuff always has at least some form of grinding and I don’t really like fighting either.
It’s a lot like stardew valley. And less than $2 in the sale. It might be a bit more puzzle game in places. Probably best to read some reviews before you buy.
I would also like to recommend Schedule I. It’s not exactly a farming game, but there is farming, and it has a similar chill vibe.
Farming Simulator 25 is surprisingly very fun, but the time it takes to complete work can be draining.
Palia is free, and the actual farming portion is super neat with the way crops interact with each other based on placement, though it might be too cute.
Apico is bee farming, so slightly different. The creator is making a similar game with frogs.
Staxel isn’t exactly anime but might not be your style either, I adored it, but it makes me motion sick to play.
But in those you CAN most definately change the FoV. Usually you need to just try out your optimal in regard to monitor-size and resolution. Staxel had no option for that as far as i remember. When you found your FoV your nausea/motion-sickness should be gone for good. At least this is the culprit in most of the cases and some devs still haven’t learned :-)
FF16 is not an incredible game. But it sure is easy to button mash your way to a win, especially considering how good some of the trinkets are (acquired at start of the game). The music is solid, the writing is interesting enough, and the visuals are great, provided you can run it well.
I did not like it at all. I thought the writing was bad, the cut scenes dragged on for way too long, and the characters and the world were uninteresting
I love the idea of sleeping on a train but the one time I did it I got woken up regularly by all the stopping and starting each time we got to a station.
I really enjoyed both Far games. I never felt like any of the puzzles were large enough to get tedious. When I finished Lone Sails I just wished there had been a longer section of driving the ship… it kind of felt like you never got to reallygo before there was some interruption that you had to stop and get out for.
Jazzpunk was one of those games that left me wishing there was more of it.
Manifold Garden is just such a perfectly executed atmosphere, it’s hard to do it justice with description - like walking around inside an Escher drawing.
Red Strings Club!!! Woah!! Been a minute since I thought about that game. Very, VERY, good. Sort of a precursor to Potion Craft in a way, that really didn’t over stay its welcome. The pacing was great, difficulty curve was great, and it had a distinctly finite story that still left you satisfied. I’ve bounced off potion craft a few times because at a point the scale, and subsequent grind, is a bit much for me. Red Strings Club nails the middle ground with good increasing complexity without becoming a chore.
I totally agree on the pacing. The Red Strings Club is a masterclass of storytelling in a video game format.
I think it’s hard to describe as a game to gamers… the actual gameplay is pretty vague, the various minigame activities are almost inconsequential, but taken as a whole it’s a perfect experience.
Classic corridor shooters fill this niche pretty well for me, if that kind of on-rails experience is what you’re looking for. I recently played F.E.A.R. and it’s first expansion Extraction Point (don’t play any later expansions or games in the franchise though) and they’re some of the best, tightest and most satisfying FPSes out there. Metro 2033 is also good for this.
If you want a no-nonsense RPG I want to put in a good word for Skald: Against the Black Priory which is very tight and linear with minimal fluff, focused on telling its story and doing a few things well rather than spreading too thin.
F.E.A.R. has such good enemy AI. It’s an amazing shooter.
Still, I’ve only ever played it once, because I’m a big wuss and scary is not my thing, I just can’t do it again. Alma is fucking creepy and the entire atmosphere gives me nightmares.
But yeah, for anyone who enjoys shooters, F.E.A.R. is a great one.
It saddens me that my country (Italy) has such a low percentage of signatures. Most of us are either ignorant of anything happening outside of our borders, or straight up doomers who don’t believe anything can ever change for the better.
Big congrats to my fellow northern cousins. I was expecting Poland, who has a healthy videogame industry, to gather a good enough number of signatures, but 160% is wild! It’s refreshing seeing so many people joining the petition - It’s not even about videogames: this initiative will have huge repercussions on the lifespan of other, unrelated products and, in general terms, planned obsolescence.
I think it’s been very hard for us to spread awareness into countries where a majority don’t also speak English, as the organizer and much of the coverage is only in English.
If you know of any big Italian gaming YouTubers or streamers that might be receptive to helping or talking about the campaign, could you reach out to them about it with a comment?
Unfortunately, that’s not my area of expertise. I don’t follow streamers or YouTubers (Italian or international), nor do I have a close enough relationship with any of them that I’d be able to talk to them and convince them to mention this petition to their fans.
The one and only time some friends and I attempted to interact with a few local content creators (to publicize our free fan games we poured hundreds of hours into and NEVER attempted to monetize in any way), we either got ignored, insulted, or received vague answers that went nowhere. It soured me towards Italian content creators and vowed to never interact with them again.
One thing you can do: In person organising. It’s something the campaign has been really bad at. Have some flyers printed up and start handing them out. I don’t know the Italian school schedule, but if universities are still in session they might be good targets.
I did it last year, first at Gamescom and then at a local uni and I think it helped spread the word.
Here are the up-to-date numbers, the threshold percentages are now better than shown the image in the post but there’s still a long way to reach the total of 1 million
Honestly, I’m absolutely happy with my Steam Deck, I think it ticks most of your boxes (it even runs Linux, so it’s essentially a portable Linux computer designed for gaming), so I think it’s the better option that you’re looking gor. To your points specifically:
it’s really geared towards family/party gaming
There are plenty of party games on Steam.
it’s Nintendo, so you get the whole usual games (Mario Kart, Zelda, etc.)
This is the only reason to get a switch, if you want a Nintendo console and Nintendo games this is the way. Everyone who gets a switch understand this is the reason they’re getting it. If this is as strong a point to you that it makes you overlook everything else, then get the switch.
like most consoles, it’s plug and play and can be enjoyed in the living room (I kind of gave up trying to set up a proper gaming experience with my Linux PCs, given that I don’t have the hardware for it)
Steam Deck also has a Dock that you can plug to your TV, you’ll need controllers but even so it should be much cheaper in the long run since games are extremely affordable compared to Nintendo.
the battery life is not great to say the least (2.5 hours takes me back of the Game Gear in early 90s!)
Haven’t seen many benchmarks of the switch to be honest, but that does sound bad, the Deck only gets that bad battery life if you’re playing Cyberpunk or something, for more casual games it can get upwards of 6h. Plus you can get power banks that fast large it while playing, which I assume is also possible on the switch although the switch 1 used to have some issues with power banks.
the screen seems to be pretty bad too (at least it’s a step back from the OLED one of the Switch)
All but the cheapest Deck models now use a 90Hz OLED panel
the joycons are still not using a Hall effect sensor, meaning they might still be prone to drifting
While the Deck’s default sticks are not hall effect, they are easily replaceable and Valve sells hall effect replacements on ifixit, so if you ever get drift in your sticks it’s fixable.
most of the games will not be sold as proper cartridges but as download codes
If you’re going down this rote Steam sells download codes for much cheaper
the whole thing (console, additional gamepads, games) is quite pricey
The Deck is about the same price, but like I said you’ll end up saving in games since you start with your whole Steam Library and can get more games much cheaper.
it’s Nintendo, famous for their anti-everything (anti-homebrew, anti-emulation, anti-piracy)
The Deck is by far the most open console you can get, you can even replace the entire OS if you want to, but StramOS is great and you shouldn’t need to.
Perhaps Eco. It’s a bit like Minecraft but much more farming, if you choose the farming profession, and no combat whatsoever. Mainly a multiplayer game through public servers but it’s doable solo as well through settings.
bin.pol.social
Aktywne